All I Could Do For You
by EmeraldElphaba
Summary: A Wicked retelling...through Elphaba's eyes. Elphaba does everything she can to save the people she loves...but is all she can do enough to save herself? There are a few creative spins on the story in this fic, however, so some of it is potentially AU-ish. Rated T to be safe. Fiyeraba, Gelphie friendship, Elphaboq friendship
1. Chapter 1

Everyone has always called my sister "tragically beautiful." She fit the description perfectly. With her brown-sugar curls and skin as white as snow, she was the most beautiful member of the Thropp family She would've been popular if not for the _tragic _part. Nessa was born paralyzed from the waist down. It was my father's fault. No. It was _my _fault. If not for my grass-hued skin, Father would never have fed Mother the milk flowers, the flowers that took her life and crippled Nessarose.

I was a different story. From the moment I was born, Father has hated me down to the bottom of his heart. I'd rather be a girl who was wheelchair-bound but beautiful, like Nessa, than myself. Unlike my gentle-appearing sister, I had pin-straight, raven-black hair, dark brown eyes, and _green skin. _Who would love a girl with green skin? Certainly not my father. While Nessa was tragically beautiful, I was _beautifully tragic, _a perfect example of something gone terribly wrong. And it wasn't limited to my appearance. I had strange tastes. Most people in Munchkinland wore colorful clothes made from interestingly textured fabrics. I had a simple wardrobe of plain, dark clothes made of soft fabrics.

Worst of all, I had a strange quirk of sorts. The first time it happened was when I was five years old. I had just started school. People were calling me "greenie," which made me angry. It was the first time anyone besides Father had mocked me for my unusual skin coloration. I lost my composure and shouted at the bullies. Before I could stop it, they suddenly flew backwards into the shelves behind them and were knocked unconscious instantly. My teacher sent me to time out, where I stayed for quite a long time. That was how I had met Boq, a Munchkin boy who was in my grade. He had stood up for me then, and we became the best of friends. But he left me when I went into third grade because he said he "didn't want to lose his old friends" for staying with me. I was crushed, but I eventually got over it. And it wasn't really deep enough that I could consider it a _real_ friendship.

It didn't happen again until I was eight. I was pushing Nessarose through the hallway at Munchkinland Elementary. One of the boys made a nasty comment and called Nessa a "cripple." I lost it again, this time causing the boy to have a seizure on the floor. I was placed in a strict time out and given responsibility over the boy's medical bills. Boq had sacrificed his reputation then to help me. He told everyone we were friends and that no one could change that, but bullies took over and he couldn't stand the pressure any longer.

I thought I had gotten over my problems and my ability to control my impulses, but when I was fourteen, it happened yet again. Two kids, a boy and a girl, had "found" an injured Squirrel on the ground outside of Munchkinland High. Livid, I asked them if they knew how it got hurt, and they told me they had kicked it out of their anger. I couldn't stand other students hurting the Animals. Both students fainted. I was punished once again.

My father was the well-known Governor of Munchkinland, and I was technically next in line to claim the position, but Father decided to put Nessarose next in line, for obvious reasons. You may ask how we could be Munchkins and still be tall, but we aren't actually of Munchkin blood; my dad had pure Gillikinese blood, and my mom had mixed Vinkun and Gillikinese blood. And besides, Munchkins aren't always the shortest. Boq was taller than me by an inch in third grade, before I hit a growth spurt.

When I turned fifteen, Father reluctantly gave me the Thropp family heirloom: a gold-encrusted hand mirror engraved with the words, _Melena, Frexspar, Elphaba, and Nessarose Thropp_. I had no wish to gaze into it, looking at my own hideous green reflection, so I locked the mirror up in a drawer in the nightstand next to my plainly decorated bed.

I was told that I performed higher than average in school, enough to allow me to skip many grades, but Father refused to allow me to join sixth grade at age nine. Nessarose, however, had somehow gotten herself from ninth grade, where her age group was in, to twelfth grade, graduating towards the top of my class. I was the top of my high school class, although there were plenty of giggles during my valedictorian's speech. I was unpopular, awkward, and unnaturally _green. _Worst of all, I was the oldest daughter of Governor Frex Thropp, the future Governor of Munchkinland. Boq was salutatorian.

Father refused to let me apply for any colleges, even though I was a star student. I had received three scholarships, all of which Father denied, finding me no good for anything besides caring for my little sister. Nessarose received a scholarship only a week after our graduation. She allowed me to read the letter of acceptance.

Dear Miss Nessarose Thropp:

You have been accepted and granted a full scholarship to Shiz University, most highly scoring educational institution in all of Oz. Supplies can be bought on the first day after moving in, before classes start. Please sign up for classes before July 29th. Choices include: Linguification, History, Government, Mathematics, Public Speaking, Biology, Sociology, Psychology, Medicine, Chemistry, Geology, Geography, Physics, Music, Art, Performing Arts, Engineering, Crafting, and, of course, my Sorcery Seminar. If you are to sign up for the Sorcery Seminar, please write a ten-page essay on a sorcery topic of your choice, including proper citations.

The faculty and I here at Shiz look forward to seeing you in the early morning of August 21st for room assignments and class scheduling.

Madame Morrible

HeadShizStress

Shiz University

I glossed over every single, beautiful word of the letter, handwritten in fine ink by the HeadShizStress on fine stationery. Scholarships to Shiz University were very rare at the time, with only five per year. I had been the valedictorian, but on my father's request, I had been cut off from my scholarships and had been forbidden to even write an essay to apply. Yet Nessa had had a chance for both, having been both accepted and granted a scholarship to Shiz, the most prestigious university in Oz. Mostly rich Gillikinese and Vinkun students attended the prestigious university, with few Munchkinlanders able to afford the costs. Nessa wouldn't have to pay a penny for it.

"Who will take care of Nessa when she goes to Shiz?" I asked, suddenly coming to the realization that . Nessarose couldn't go alone. She'd need someone to push her wheelchair and help her get dressed.

"Well, Elphaba, I will agree to send you to Shiz University along with your sister so you can watch over her. But I don't want you signing up for too many expensive classes. You will be there for the sole purpose of caring for my darling Nessarose."

I was stunned. It was the closest to kindness my father had ever come, and even that was a long way off.

Two months later, I packed a single suitcase full of things: my clothes, stationery, pens, books to read, my glasses-cleaning kit, and the mirror Father had given me. Last but not least, I placed a green bottle in the pocket of my dress. It was all I had left of my mother, and I wasn't going to leave without it.


	2. Accidentally Perfect

**AN: I just found out that you have to post the author's notes in the document...sorry...**

**Anyways, thank you to everyone who reviewed this and my other fic (What's in a Name?). I spent a lot of time editing this (especially later chapters), and I wrote it more than six months ago (before I had an account).**

**And if anyone thought I owned Wicked, I do not.**

* * *

It was August 21st, the day we would receive our room assignments and class schedules. We arrived at Shiz early in the morning, exactly as the instructions required.

Immediately upon arrival at the university campus, two girls, one with red curls and the other with medium brown hair pulled back with a headband, fixed their eyes onto me. Of course! My green skin was a magnet for negative attention.

"What are you looking at?" I snapped. "Do I have something in my teeth?" I knew I definitely _didn't _have lettuce in my teeth, but I hadn't been stared at for this long in years. People back at school in Munchkinland had gotten as used to my "strangeness" as one possibly could, though I still got bullied very often.

The girls continued to stare, and one of them began to giggle.

"Alright, I might as well get this over with!" I yelled, stepping forward and dropping my suitcase, which hit the floor with a powerful _thud_. "NO, I am not seasick! YES, I have always been green! _No, _I did _not _eat _grass _as a child!"

Then, at the worst possible moment, Father walked in, pushing Nessa in her simple yet elegant wheelchair.

"And this is my younger sister, Nessarose!" I explained, sarcasm dripping from my voice. "As you can see, she's a _perfectly normal _color!"

Father yanked on the edge of my dark blue jacket, twisting me around until his furious eyes met mine. "Elphaba, stop making a _spectacle_ of yourself!"

_Well, _I pondered, _there's no use in saying that. I can't stop making a spectacle of myself because I _am _a spectacle!_

"You remember I'm only sending you to this school for _one reason_?"

"Yes," I sighed, disappointed. I wanted to work things out by myself for once, not just live to follow my sister around. "To look after Nessa." But I knew I would do anything and everything I could to keep Nessa from harm.

Nessarose gazed at me, her soft eyes into my heart with what I hoped was pity.

Father made his way toward her, beaming with pride.

"My precious little girl," Father said, kneeling beside Nessa's wheelchair, "a parting gift." He held up a wooden box he had brought with him from Munchkinland, deliberately engraved with an intricate design of the Munchkinland Gardens, and placed it into my sister's dainty hands.

Nessa slowly opened the box and lifted out a pair of dazzling silver shoes. _Silver shoes. _They were size seven ballet flats, with a subtle heel.

"Father!" she exclaimed with joy. "Jeweled shoes!"

Father kissed Nessarose's cheek gently. "As befits the future Governor of Munchkinland."

My father, who had certainly always loved Nessa much more than he loved me, turned around to face me, shoving the empty box into my hands.

"Take care of your sister," he ordered sternly, anxiety obvious from his tight expression, "and try not to talk so much!" With that, he stormed out of the doors of Shiz University, not understanding that I cared just as much for Nessa as he did. He didn't seem fully confident that leaving me there to make sure nothing happened to his precious Nessarose was the best idea.

As I handed Nessa the wooden box, I found myself looking down with awe at the silver shoes. Silver was an expensive material in Oz, and the shoes had been handcrafted by a fine cobbler in Quadling Country, which was considered the artisan capital of Oz. I wondered how much Father had paid for this pair of handmade Quadling shoes; probably as much as one thousand Ozian Dollars. And he had given them to Nessa, not to me. I had only received two gifts in my entire life: the first, from my mother, a green vial that had once belonged to her, and the second, the mirror Father had given me only because he had to do what the unwritten code of family-heirloom-giving had told him to do. And I already knew Father despised my existence: he once told me that the day I was born was the worst day of his entire life. He was ashamed that I was green, of course. And he didn't find me deserving of his lavish gifts. I didn't need possessions to be happy; I was used to not having much.

A white-haired lady who was wearing a crimson dress stepped in, holding up a hand to .signal silence

The Shiz University school song began to play in the main hall. We all sang along with the words on the program one of the professors handed out.

"O, hallowed halls and vine-draped walls," sang the Shiz chorus. "The proudliest sight there is! When gray and sere our hair hath turned we shall still revere the lessons learned, in our days at dear old Shiz, in our days at dear old Shiz!"

That's when I noticed him. He was wearing a striped jacket and a red cap, and he was talking to three girls; the red-haired one and the dark-haired one, as well as a girl with blonde curls that fell just above her shoulders. He looked different than he did way back then, but I recognized him as if he had seen me yesterday. _Boq. _His dark brown hair was neatly trimmed, and he was about five feet, four inches tall, much taller than most Munchkins. So, my friend from elementary school would be attending Shiz University as well. But we weren't friends anymore, apparently. I longed, though, to go back to the days when Boq and I held hands and played on the playground together, when we studied for spelling tests and came up with the funniest jokes we could think of, laughing until our sides ached. Boq had been the closest to a real friend I had ever had.

The white-haired woman introduced herself and began taking attendance. "Welcome, new students! I am Madame Morrible, headmistress here at Shiz University, and whether you are here to study law, logic, or linguification, I know that I speak for my fellow faculty members when I say that we have nothing but the highest hopes for…_some _of you."

Nessarose, looking stunning in her new shoes, caught the headmistress's eye. "You must be the Governor's daughter. Miss Nessarose, isn't it? What a tragically beautiful face you have!" It was very true: Nessa had inherited my mother's beauty. "And who is…" She saw my face, with its green skin and wire-rimmed glasses, and jumped back slightly. "Ah…"

"I'm the other daughter, Elphaba," I responded, as calmly as possible. "I'm…_beautifully tragic._" The girls in the back giggled hysterically.

"Oh, well, I see you must be very bright."

A voice on the other end of the room cut in. "Bright? She's phosphorescent!"

I almost gagged. This was going to be a long school year.

Morrible stopped the conversation before it escalated any further. "Any questions regarding room assignments?"

The girl with blonde, curly hair, blue eyes, and fair complexion stepped forward, raising her hand delicately. She was wearing a white gown made of genuine Gillikinese silk. She had to be a member of the extremely wealthy and highly valued political family of the Uplands. Not all Uplands had the same last name, but they shared blood status somehow. The Uplands were well-known for their public speaking skills. Unfortunately, they were also known for being snobby, popular, and flawless. Any member of the Upland family would clash with me like my skin with the color orange.

"Is this regarding room assignments?" the HeadShizstress inquired.

"No, but you see, I'm Galinda Upland," the girl laughed. So I was right. She was an Upland. A pure-blood Upland, to be precise. "Of the _Upper _Uplands. I've applied to your Sorcery Seminar, and I don't think you read my essay."

"I have decided that am not teaching my seminar this semester," said Madame Morrible. Nessarose's face fell. She had hoped her essay would be worth it. Morrible must have changed her plans since she sent out the letter.

Galinda backed away from the headmistress. She obviously hadn't earned a scholarship, but, being an Upland, probably could buy the Shiz campus itself with the allowance she'd received each week as a ten-year-old.

"Excuse me, but we haven't received our room assignments," I spoke steadily and carefully, my hand on Nessa's wheelchair.

"The Governor is concerned for your sister's well-being, quite apparently. She will share my compartment."

"But I'm supposed to look after my sister," I interjected, nervous.

"He never mentioned you." Why would he mention me? I'm only attending this school to look after Nessa. He wouldn't leave the headmistress a note, even to acknowledge that I exist. "Just a slight gulch, not to fret! Who would like to room with Miss Elphaba?"

Boq began whispering to the blonde. "You should say something," he suggested, loudly enough that I could hear.

"Oh thank you, Biq!"

"Boq!" he corrected.

The Upland girl raised her dainty hand. "Madame Morrible!"

"Oh, Miss Elphaba, you can room with Miss Galinda!"

I was stunned by Galinda's act of kindness. She was beautiful. She was popular. And Boq suggested she choose to room with me, daughter of the Governor of _Munchkinland, _with green skin and a quirky personality!

Madame Morrible pressed our hands together, and the moment Galinda shrieked, I realized that the Gillikin girl hadn't meant to be my roommate. It had only been an accident. She had been about to ask Madame Morrible a question, and she responded incorrectly to the situation. That was what Boq had been telling her about! Sorcery essays! He was too busy chatting to hear what was going on. Now, not only was I rooming with a snobby Gillikin girl, but I was rooming with a snobby Gillikin girl who obviously detested me.

Madame Morrible began to walk away briskly. She was pushing Nessa's wheelchair toward the staff dormitories. I couldn't let this happen! Nessarose should've been rooming with _me_! I was in charge of looking after her, after all!

I felt myself losing control, but no matter how hard I tried to stop it, it was too late. My anger level boiled over, and I reached toward Nessa. "LET HER GO!"

My heart was pounding out of my chest. I was breathing heavily. Anger and anxiety had taken over. I had lost control for the fourth time in my life.

The room grew dark. Madame Morrible's fingers slipped off the handles of Nessa's wheelchair. The wheelchair began spinning out of control through the main hall, almost running into a group of Vinkun girls, who screamed and ducked out of the way. I did the only thing my instincts told me to do: I held out my right hand and began moving it naturally, without knowing what it did or what it meant. The wheelchair began to control itself, until its handles finally clasped into my hands.

"You _promised _things would be different here!" Nessarose cried, embarrassment washing over her features.

I knelt down beside her wheelchair, feeling slightly nauseous. "Nessa, I'm sorry!"

Madame Morrible placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. "_Sorry!? _Never apologize for talent! Talent is a gift!"

I was dumbfounded.

"I shall tutor you privately and take no other students!" Galinda opened her mouth to object, but Madame Morrible cut her off. Boq raised his hand nervously before deciding it was pointless to do so.

"Many years I have waited for a gift like yours to appear! Why, I predict the Wizard could make you his magic Grand Vizier!"

I was confused. "_The _Wizard," I repeated, making sure I had heard Madame Morrible correctly.

"Oh, my dear, my dear! I'll write at once to the Wizard, tell him of you in advance! With a talent like yours, dear, there is a definish chance if you work as you should. You'll be making good!"

The HeadShizstress dismissed the students to their dormitories.

"Did that _really_ just happen?" I muttered. "Have I actually understood? This weird quirk I've tried to suppress or hide is a _talent _that could help me meet the Wizard, if I make good?" I was still in complete denial. Boq had been the only person besides me, Nessa, and Father who knew about the quirk. Now everyone in Shiz University knew. Instead of denying it, I decided to smile. "So I'll make good!"

I picked up my plain, leather suitcase that held all of my clothes and some other belongings. "When I meet the Wizard, once I prove my worth, and then I meet the Wizard, what I've waited for since, well, since birth! And with all his Wizard wisdom, by my looks he won't be blinded! Do you think the Wizard is dumb, or like Munchkins, so small-minded? No! He'll say to me, 'I see who you truly are, a girl on whom I can rely,' and that's how we'll begin, the Wizard and I!"

I walked past a group of Gillikinese boys, who were pointing and laughing as I passed by. "Once I'm with the Wizard, my whole life will change! 'Cause once you're with the Wizard, no one thinks you're strange! No father is not proud of you, no sister acts ashamed, and all of Oz has to love you, for by the Wizard you're acclaimed! And this gift, or this curse, I have inside, maybe at last I'll know why, when we are hand in hand, the Wizard and I!"

I stopped in the hallway to gather myself. I set my suitcase down so I could use it as a bench. "One day he'll say to me, 'Elphaba, a girl who is so superior, shouldn't a girl who's so good inside have a matching exterior? And since folks here to an absurd degree, seem…_fixated _on your verdigris, _would it be alright by you, if I de-greenify you_?' And though , of course, that's not important to me, 'Alright! Why not?' I'll reply! Oh, what a pair we'll be, the Wizard and I."

I picked up my suitcase and was suddenly hit by a strange sensation. Nearly passing out, I saw an image of a girl in an enchanted bubble flying above a crowd of cheering Munchkins. _They're cheering for me, _I realized. _Strange. _Regaining my balance, I kept walking. "Unlimited, my future is unlimited. And I've just had a vision almost like a prophecy. I know it sounds truly crazy, and true, the vision's hazy. But I swear someday there'll be a celebration throughout Oz that's all to do with _me!"_

I took a deep breath. "And I'll stand there, with the Wizard, feeling things I've never felt! And though I'd never show it, I'd be so happy I could melt! And so it would be for the rest of my life, and I'd want nothing else 'til I die! Held in such high esteem, when people see me they will scream, for half of Oz's favorite team: the Wizard and I!"

I arrived at my room fairly quickly. Galinda Upland was already inside, laying out bottles of perfume and all of her makeup and hair products. She was muttering something about an annoying Munchkin named Biq. _Wait, _I realized. Boq must have had a crush on this blonde girl. Who wouldn't? She was flawless and popular. But she was _not_ a good influence on my former friend. And Galinda didn't even know how to say his _name_ correctly.

The room was large, with a two-bed bedroom, large wardrobes, a large bathroom (with a shower and a large bathtub, two sinks, and a wall almost covered in mirrors), and private dressers.

Galinda had already claimed the bed closest to the window and farthest from the door, so I had to put up with the door side. At least it was closer to the bathroom and had just enough space.

I glanced at my schedule, fresh-printed on new paper. I had been accepted into Linguification, Government, Mathematics, Psychology, Chemistry, Engineering, and History, not counting the Sorcery Seminar, which I already knew was every Wednesday.

I took out my fountain pen and plain stationery and began to write.

My dear Father,

There's been some confusion over rooming here at Shiz, but of course I'll care for Nessa, for I know that's how you want me to respond. Yes, there's been some confusion for you see my roommate is blonde!

I'll send you a daily letter regarding how I am doing at school here tomorrow.

I know you miss Nessarose, but do you miss me? Probably not.

Sincerely,

Elphaba M. Thropp

I glanced at Galinda's letter, written in pink ink.

Dearest, Darlingest Momsie and Popsicle,

There's been some confusion over rooming here at Shiz, but

of course _I'll rise above it, for I know that's how you'd want me to respond. Yes, there's been some confusion… for you see my roommate is unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe._

I will write to you tomorrow to tell you about my classes and other things that come up at school. I miss you!

With Dearest Love,

_Galinda Upland of the Upper Uplands_

We had both written similar letters, which proved our feelings for each other.

"What is this feeling, so sudden and new?" Galinda said, spraying her bed with so much perfume it made me gag. I sprayed breath spray on mine to cover up the smell.

"I felt the moment I laid eyes on you," I sneered.

"My pulse is rushing."

"My head is reeling."

"My face is flushing."

"What is this feeling?" we yelled in unison. "Fervid as a flame, does it have a name? Yes! Loathing, unadulterated loathing!"

"For your face!" Galinda looked over my green skin with disgust.

"Your voice!" I was sick of Galinda's, well…blondeness!

"Your clothing!" Galinda began to mess around with my drawers, which made me even more unhappy with her.

"Let's just say: I loathe it all!" we both said.

"Every little trait however small makes my very flesh begin to crawl with simple, utter loathing!"  
"There's a strange exhilaration in such total detestation. It's so pure, so strong!"

We both yelled, "Though I do admit it came on fast, still I do believe that it can last, and I will be loathing you my whole life long!"

Boq, who was one of the few Munchkins attending Shiz, stepped into the room. Six well-dressed girls followed behind.

"Dear Galinda, you are just too good!" they yelled. "How do you stand it I don't think I could! She's a _terror, _she's a tartar, we don't mean to show a bias, but Galinda you're a _martyr_!"

Galinda sighed. "Well, these things are said to try us!"

"Poor Galinda, forced to reside with someone so disgusticified, we just want to tell you, we're all on your side! We share your loathing, unadulterated loathing, for her face, her voice, her clothing!"

I couldn't believe my ears. _Boq, _who had been my almost-friend for four years, was siding with _Galinda_? Of course he would. He was infatuated with her. To make matters worse, I could tell he remembered me, but empty look in his eyes told me that he wanted to pretend it had never happened. I felt a pang of sadness when I remembered when we used to never leave each other's sides. Now that was over. But he had to be _pretending _he hated me to fit in…unlikely, but there was still hope.

"Loathing! There's a strange exhilaration in such total detestation! It's so pure, so strong! Though I do admit it came on fast, still I do believe that it can last, and I will be loathing, for forever, loathing, truly, deeply, loathing you my whole life long!"

I turned around to yell "BOO!" into Galinda's ear.

Galinda screamed, and I finally laughed for the first time that day.


	3. The Note on the Chalkboard

A few weeks later, I woke up with the sunlight streaming through the room. Even though she was closer to the window that I was, Galinda continued to sleep soundly. She was going to be late. I, however, had my mind set on being the first person to arrive at my first class, and today, I also had History with Dr. Dillamond, the only Animal professor left at Shiz. It was my favorite class; Dr. Dillamond made it even better.

As I quickly combed through and re-braided my long hair, put on the matching jacket to my plain blue dress, and neatly placed my completed assignments in my bag, I heard Galinda finally get out of bed. I knew that the Upland girl would be spending tons of time and energy on perfecting her makeup. She put on too much perfume for my liking, so I walked into the other room so I wouldn't gag. I left for class before I got to see Galinda emerge after her makeover. She seemed to care about her looks more than any chances she had at getting an A in History.

I had already packed most of my book bag the night before, so all I did was check it for paper, pencils and pens, notebooks, and textbooks. I packed a quick lunch and headed out, grateful to be away from my roommate for the ten minutes it took to walk to the social sciences building.

* * *

"Miss Glinda."

Dr. Dillamond had been trying to answer Galinda's apparent question.

"It's _Ga_linda, with a GA," she complained. This wasn't the first time she had disrupted the lesson today. I shifted in my seat, eager to hear what the professor had planned for us to hear.

"Alright, Gl-gl-Glinda!"

"I don't see what the problem is! Every other professor seems to be able to pronounce my name!" she fumed.

"Maybe perfecting the pronunciation of your precious name isn't the sole purpose of Dr. Dillamond's life!" I interjected. "And maybe he's not like every other professor! Maybe some of us are _different_."

"It seems the artichoke is steamed!" Galinda joked. The class burst into a cacophony of jeering laughter. Angry, I bit my lip in order to refrain from yelling at Galinda.

"Elphaba has a point!" Dr. Dillamond shouted, motioning for the volume to be lowered. "On with the lesson! Does anyone know what is meant by the term _scapegoat?"_

I raised my hand for the fifth time that class period.

"Someone besides Miss Elphaba." I lowered it, slightly embarrassed to have taken the opportunity for other students to ask questions.

Galinda Upland raised her hand, leaving me with a sense of dread as to what she

was going to do next. "Miss G-Glinda," Dr. Dillamond stammered, doing his best to pronounce his student's name correctly.

"It's Galinda, with a GA, and I don't see why you can't just teach us history instead of always harping on the past!"

I rolled my eyes at that silly remark.

Dr. Dillamond sighed and flipped the chalkboard over to the other side. Forgetting the lesson entirely, his mouth dropped open.

There was a message scrawled on the back board.

_Animals should be SEEN and NOT HEARD._

By the looks of it, the message had been written in a hurry.

I was appalled that anyone would possibly be horrendible enough to write such a cruel anti-Animal message on the back of a classroom chalkboard. The Animals had every right to speak. They should have had the same right to speak as humans did. But for a reason I couldn't seem to understand, some people thought speech was a method of communication for human use only. This message, however, had gone way too far off the deep end.

"Who is responsible for this?" asked a shocked Dr. Dillamond. Students were turning around, giving each other baffled glances. "I am waiting for an answer!"

Nobody answered. "Class dismissed!"

* * *

Everyone else filtered out of the room, but I stayed, wanting to do everything I could to help my favorite teacher.

"Oh, Miss Elphaba, you don't have to worry about me…go along and enjoy your friends." Dr. Dillamond looked somber, and it was easy to tell that I did need to worry about him.

"Oh, that's alright," I said sadly but truthfully. "I have no friends." I opened my lunchbox, and I realized that it would be nice of me to offer him some. "Would you like to share my lunch?" I offered him. He must have felt worse than anyone could imagine, and I knew it wouldn't fix everything, but a little act of kindness goes a long way to help someone. I had packed a cucumber-and-cream-cheese sandwich, two sugar cookies, and extra napkins.

"Thank you! How kind!" Dr. Dillamond took the napkins and ate one before declaring that he wasn't hungry.

I tried to console him, tried to let him know that he shouldn't have to live his life in fear. "You shouldn't let statements like that bother you! I mean, I always do, but _you _shouldn't!" Inside, though, I felt just as broken as the Goat who sat in front of me.

"Oh, Miss Elphaba, if it were only a matter of words on a chalkboard," he finally said after a minute of complete silence. "But the things one hears these days! Dreadful things! I've heard of an Ox, a professor from Quox, no longer permitted to teach, who has lost all powers of speech!"

"_What_!?" I hadn't heard anything of the sort. I didn't want to believe him,

because that only made it feel more and more real. But Dr. Dillamond _was _an Animal, so he was a trusted source of information about them. I decided I had to trust him.

"And an Owl in Munchkin Rock, a vicar with a thriving flock, forbidden to preach. Now he only can screech!" This stunned me even more than I expected it to. That had happened recently, since I had begun attending Shiz, because the preacher at my church had been an Owl. He was gone now, fallen victim to those who felt

"Only rumors, but still, enough to give pause to anyone with paws! Something _bad_ is happening in Oz!"

"Something bad, happening _in Oz!?_" I half-echoed after him.

"Under the surface, behind the scenes, something _baaa_ad!" Dr. Dillamond's voice began to echo that of a non-speaking goat. "Sorry. _Bad_."

"Dr. Dillamond, are you alright? Would you like me to fetch you a glass of water?"

He shook his head, and I realized that something much more serious than a slip of the tongue had caused him to sound like an animal. "No, I don't know _what_ came over me…"

I decided to get back on the topic we were discussing. "So, you're saying that there are Animals who have somehow…_forgotten_ to speak?" I asked nervously.

A sad look had glazed over Dr. Dillamond's eyes. "Well, with so much pressure _not_ to…"

Whoever was forcing the Animals to give up their ability to speak…I _had _to stop them. I _had_ to do all that I could do for these Animals. I would do it for Dr. Dillamond.

Madame Morrible strode into the room, eyeing over the sentence scrawled on the chalkboard. "I heard there was some sort of disturberance in class today. Are you alright, Doctor? Oh, Miss Elphaba, you're still here! I thought you'd be on your way to my seminar by now!"

I swallowed hard, trying to explain without giving any excuses. "Yes, Madame, ordinarily I would be, but…"

"But what? I do hope I have not misplaced my trust in you."

I swallowed hard again, hoping my hard-earned reputation wouldn't be ruined by my desire to stay with Dr. Dillamond.

"Magic is a very demanderating mistress, especially if one has ambitions of meeting the Wizard…I'm _sure _Dr. Dillamond sees my point."

Her voice was so sickly sweet that I started to feel like I wanted to throw up.

"I'd…better go." Sorcery was my most important class, and I couldn't afford to miss it. But I turned back to Dr. Dillamond, realizing that he was much more important than my highly valued grades.

"If something bad is happening to the Animals," I suggested, "someone's got to tell the Wizard! That's why we _have _a Wizard! So nothing bad…."

"Nothing all that bad!" we told each other, as if we thought it would make the situation better.

"Nothing truly _baaa_ad!" It had happened again. Was he losing his voice? "Sorry. _Bad_."

I left the room, muttering, "It _couldn't _happen here in Oz!"


	4. A Life-Changing Dance

**AN: This is actually my second-favorite Act One chapter I wrote for this story. My favorite is the Lion Cub scene (soon to come in two chapters!). This chapter took me quite a while to edit, but not as long as the last chapter, because I don't watch the 1st classroom scene that much and I had to look up the script to make the chapter longer. Thank you to whoever copied and pasted the script into their Wicked wiki!**

**I am working on a poem for Fiyero's name for my other fic (What's in a Name?), but I am totally stuck on R, I, U, and G, so that's why it's taking so long to update that one.**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I really appreciate that people are taking their time to read this story. **

**DISCLAIMER: If I owned Wicked, it wouldn't be called Fanfiction.**

* * *

At the very end of the day, I walked back to my room. I took out my training wand from the Sorcery Seminar and began the practice spells I had been assigned for homework. I had already mastered the Color-Change Spell within a half hour. Then, I took out my Government notes and began highlighting them. If Galinda were to spend this much quality time on her assignments, she just might earn herself an A.

_Yes, _I thought. _Galinda needs to learn to actually study instead of running off with Fiyero. _Fiyero was a Winkie Prince who I had just discoverated existed from a note on Galinda's nightstand. Galinda was obviously into him, and they were both obviously brainless.

_Elphaba ,_

_I am out with Fiyero Tiggular (he's that Winkie Prince with the reputation that is so scadalicious!) and won't be back until I come to get ready for the Ozdust Ballroom at six. Don't mess with my dresses or I'll kill you!_

_Your roommate ,_

_Galinda Upland (of the Upper Uplands)_

_P.S. That guy Biq really is starting to creep me out._

There was a quiet knock on my door.

"Come in," I told the visitor.

A few seconds later, Nessarose wheeled herself through the door, a bright smile lighting up her face.

"Yes, I've heard," I said, before Nessa could even speak. "This prince comes along, and now everyone's off to worship him at some…cultish social gathering!"

"Even me!" Nessa told me, excited. "I'm going! Boq was too shy to ask me at first, but once Galinda encouraged him…."

"_Boq?_" I asked, stunned. Nessarose was going with _Boq_? This was an opportunity to maybe rebuild our long-lost friendship…Besides, it would keep him away from Galinda, who was such a bad influence. "Wait. _Galinda_."

"Don't you dare say anything more against her! I'm about to have the first _happy_ night of my life, thanks to Galinda! Finally, for this one night, I'm about to have a _fun_ night, with this Munchkin boy Galinda found for me! And I only wish there were something I could do for her to repay her! Elphaba, see? We deserve each other, and Galinda helped it come true! We deserve each other, me and Boq! Please, Elphaba, _try _to understand!"

I looked down at my own green hands. I wasn't beautiful. I was hideous. Unnaturally green. Nobody would ever even consider asking me to the Ozdust Ballroom. It seemed that nobody would ever like me, as a friend or as more than a friend. But Nessa _was _beautiful. _Tragically_ beautiful. I knew Boq was kind and would be perfect for her. "I do."

I left the room, hurrying after Galinda. I was going to have to repay her- somehow.

After a few minutes of searching, I found Galinda in the courtyard. She was holding a round box, and when I walked past her, she bumped her head on the wall. Curse her nonexistent brain.

"Galinda, we were just talking about you," I said. "We wanted to…"

"Oh! And I was just talking about _you_!" She pulled a pointy, conical black hat out of the box, holding it proudly in front of her. "It's really, uh, _sharp, _don't you think? You know, black is this year's pink! You deserve each other, this hat and you, you're both so…_smart_! You deserve each other, so here! Out of the _goodness_ of my heart!"

"Thank…thank you!" I choked out. It had to be an unusually emotional reaction to a hat, but it was only the third gift I had received in my lifetime, given to me by someone I knew as an enemy. I took the hat, placing it on my head. It _did_ actually look great on me, which was amazing in itself. And I was going to go find Madame Morrible. Now I had to repay Galinda for two acts of kindness.

* * *

"Madame Morrible!"

I found the HeadShizstress walking down the hallway that led to the Sorcery classroom.

"Do you know Galinda Upland?"

Madame Morrible looked at me like I had just asked if I could dye her hair blue, growing pale at the mention of the ditsy Upland girl. "Yes."

"I ask that you include her in your Sorcery Seminar. It was her lifelong dream. She hates me for it. And I wanted to repay her for helping my sister. It's the least I can do for her."

"I have already determined she does not have what it takes. There is a reason why some people are better off without fulfilling their lifelong dreams."

I took a deep breath, trying not to sound too harsh. "If you don't include Galinda, I'm dropping out."

"What!?" Morrible's jaw dropped.

"I'm _dropping out _of the Sorcery Seminar," I repeated. "I don't want to be in the class unless Galinda Upland is also in it. Tell her _tonight_!"

Madame Morrible looked like she was going to faint.

* * *

When I arrived at the ball, the first thing that caught my eyes was Nessarose. Boq was holding her hand and pushing her wheelchair around so she could experience dancing. Nessa seemed to be having fun with Boq. It was a pity that he seemed to envy Galinda, who maybe wasn't as much of a disaster as I thought she was. Galinda obviously disliked him, though, which was also a pity. _I_ needed to stop disliking people in general. I wanted to talk to him, ask him where he'd been all this time, but I highly doubted he would continue the long-ago friendship.

I stepped onto the dance floor at the Ozdust. I was alone, without a dance partner or a date. I stood tall at the top of the ballroom steps, ready to make my entrance. The orchestra stopped playing. The party guests stopped dancing. Everyone stared.

I took the hat off, realizing that it was the source of the added stares. Galinda…she had tricked me! The hat wasn't fashionable at all. She was trying to bully me. But _I _liked the hat. I put it right back on my head and began dancing solo.

I didn't really know how to dance, never having done it before. It was mostly just swaying motions and uncoordinated arm movements. People stared, but I kept dancing. For once, I felt powerful, like I actually had a chance to overcome the teasing that had held me captive since I was born.

Boq looked up, the only person besides the Winkie Prince, Fiyero, that wasn't laughing at me. He had a sorry look in his eyes, but I could tell the good old days were gone. He didn't try to help me; he didn't stand up for me. He only stared, wide-eyed.

But Fiyero seemed to stare at me in a _different _way, almost like he wasn't making fun of me, but…_watching_ me in awe.

Every second seemed agonizingly long. Before I knew it, the last person I expected to stand up to me stepped up onto the staircase, dancing with me. I couldn't believe my eyes. Snobby, selfish Galinda had just risked her own reputation to save mine. She was braver than I had ever thought she had the potential to be. I just hoped what happened to Boq and I wouldn't happen to us, to our new…_friendship._

The orchestra started back up. "Dancing through life," we all sang. Maybe the brainless prince was right after all. "Down at the Ozdust. If only because dust is what we come to... There's a strange thing, your life could end up _changing_ when you're dancing _through_!"


	5. Personality Dialysis

**AN: Sorry it's taken me so long to update. I have been very busy lately and very tired. I will try to update more often, but my school is starting next week, so I will have schoolwork to do in addition to editing and uploading chapters.**

**The spell in this chapter (which will also appear later on in the story) isn't really based on anything (no root words, other languages, or anything like that that I know of). I just kind of came up with it because it sounded a little bit like the protection spell in the Harry Potter series (which I do not own).**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Wicked (book or musical), or any of the lyrics, lines, or characters from Wicked. That's why it's called Fanfiction.**

* * *

Galinda and I were still in our dresses from the ball. Mine was a very plain, dark blue frock, but Galinda's was an extravagant pink gown, strapless with lots of frilly ruffles. We had both already written letters to our families.

_My Dear Father,_

_Classes have been hectic lately, and I never had time to write this past week, so I apologize for sending this letter much later than expected. _

_My roommate Galinda Upland (of the Upper Uplands) has been interesting lately. She's from Gillikin (a member of the famous Upland family). I loathed her until last night, when we decided to become friends. It's a long story that I do not wish to explain at this time._

_Nessarose is doing alright staying with Madame Morrible, the HeadShizstress, though it would have definitely been better for her to room with me so I could care for her, just as you asked. I know you are still beyond disappointed in me, Father, for not staying with her to protect her. I really was given no choice. Otherwise, through, Nessa is doing well. She has excellent grades and progress reports on her assignments so far, and went to her first dance last night (at the Ozdust Ballroom) with a Munchkin boy named Boq._

_Madame Morrible has begun to teach me well in her Sorcery Seminar. I'm sorry, Father, that it happened again, and that I lost control. I understand that I broke the promise I gave both Nessa and you. But so much good has suddenly come out of this problem I have. Madame Morrible has already justified that if I continue to work hard in her class, I should be able to meet the Wizard by the end of the school year._

_Generally, I have been doing well, and have good grades so far. I am healthy still. Thank you again for sending Nessa and I to Shiz._

_Sincerely,_

_Elphaba M. Thropp_

I used one of the spells I had learned earlier in the day, the Protection Spell, on my green bottle. "_Pala rego," _I whispered, and the bottle glowed a fluorescent red for a moment before becoming unbreakable. I put the bottle safely in the pocket of my gray-and-blue pillowcase, where I kept it when I wasn't out and about. It was a comfort object to me. During the day, I carried it in a dress pocket, and never let it leave my grasp.

"Let's each tell one another something we've never told anyone before!" Galinda proposed. "I'll go first. Fiyero and I are going to be married!"

What!? "He's asked you already?" I gaped.

Galinda laughed, another one of her girly giggles. "Oh, he doesn't know yet." I rolled my eyes. "Do you have a secret?"

"No!" I shouted, although I did have secrets. Everybody had secrets, but the point of them being secrets is that they are kept to yourself.

"How about…why do you sleep with this funny little green bottle under your pillow?" Galinda had grabbed the bottle from under my pillow. I panicked.

"Give it back!" I yelled furiously, grasping for the bottle. "It was my mother's, that's all!" Galinda had to have gone through all my drawers and belongings while I was still in the room, or else spied on me during the night, to know that the bottle even existed.

"That's not fair. I told you a _really good one_!"

I sucked in a sharp breath. I was going to have to tell her at some point, so why not now? "My father hates me!"

Galinda gasped, jaw dropping.

"That's not the secret. The secret is, he has a _good reason_. When my mother was carrying Nessa, my father was worried the baby might come out…"

"Green," Galinda finished, a sad look spreading over her perfect face.

I decided to continue on, although I didn't feel like it. "He was so worried he made my mother chew milk flowers day and night. Only, it made Nessa come too early, with her little legs all tangled, and my mother…" I took in another breath, trying to release the butterflies in my stomach. _Mother. _The only one who had ever truly loved me despite the color of my skin. "She never woke up. None of which ever would have happened if not for me." It was bad enough being bullied for my green skin, but it was so much worse seeing Nessa being called a "cripple," and knowing I had inflicted that pain upon her.

Galinda placed a soothing hand on my shoulder. "That was the milk flowers' fault, not yours! That may be your secret, Elphie, but it doesn't make it true!"

I opened my mouth to object, but Galinda had already moved on.

Galinda began gathering some makeup supplies. "Elphie, is it okay if I call you 'Elphie?'" she asked.

"Well, it's a little perky," I responded. Galinda took that as a definite "yes."

"Elphie, now that we're friends, I've decided to make you my new project."

"You don't have to do that!"

"That's what makes me so nice!" Galinda didn't seem to understand that I didn't _want_ her to give me a makeover. "Whenever I see someone less fortunate than I, and let's face it, who isn't less fortunate than I? My tender heart tends to start to bleed, and when someone needs a makeover I simply have to take over. I know I know exactly what they need. And even in your case-though it's the _toughest_ case I've yet to face-don't worry, I'm determined to succeed. Follow my lead, and yes, indeed. You will be-_popular_!"

I sighed. I honestly didn't want to be popular. I would much rather be myself than someone like Galinda. And why did that girl always have to speak her mind so explicitly?

"I'll teach you the proper ploys when you talk to boys, little ways to flirt and flounce! I'll show you what shoes to wear, how to fix your hair, everything that really counts to be popular!" Galinda began to untie my neat braid without even asking.

Did Galinda not understand that flirting and talking properly to boys wouldn't help me? I was green, for Oz's sake! I was probably going to die an old woman without having been married, because nobody had the capacity to fall in love with the artichoke. My hair didn't need fixing; my shoes were perfectly comfortable, and though not particularly fashionable, I would definitely prefer them over a pair of Galinda's ankle-twisting stiletto heels.

"You'll hang with the right cohorts, you'll be good at sports, know the slang you've got to know, so let's start, 'cause you've got an _awfully_ long way to go!"

I didn't need to be good at sports; I was already strong from having pushed Nessa's wheelchair everywhere for thirteen years.

"Don't be offended by my frank analysis," continued Galinda, taking off my glasses. I needed them so see! "Think of it as…personality dialysis! Now that I've chosen to become a pal, a sister, and adviser, there's nobody wiser, not when it comes to popular! I _know _about popular! And with an assist from me you'll be who you'll be, instead of dreary who-you-were, well, _are. _There's nothing that can stop you from becoming popular. _Lar."_

Actually, there was a lot that could stop me from becoming popular. First of all, I had _green skin_. Second of all, I just can't stand what popular people do. The list could go on forever.

Galinda began applying purple eye-shadow to my green eyelids and a bit of mascara to my lashes. She put light pink blush on my cheekbones and lipstick the color of a stop sign on my thin lips, making them more noticeable. She brushed my hair, applied hairspray, and parted it.

"When I see depressing creatures, with unprepossessing features, I'm reminded on my own behalf to think of celebrated heads of state or 'specially great communicators! Did they have brains or knowledge? Don't make me _laugh_!" Galinda said, stifling a giggle. "They were _popular_!"

There was the true Upland inside Galinda showing itself. Politics was, of course, the Upland family's profession. Now that I thought about it, it could even be why they valued popularity so much.

"It's all about popular! It's not about aptitude, it's the way you're viewed, so it's very shrewd to be very, very popular like _me_!"

Galinda took out a short, white metal stick. _A training wand. _Madame Morrible _had_ respected my wishes to include Galinda in the Seminar. Thank Oz!

"Now, I will transform your simple frock into a magnificent ball gown!" Galinda waved the wand around madly. She hadn't even had any instruction! "Ball gown!" she shouted. Nothing happened. I sighed hopelessly. "BALL GOWN!" No result. "Is this thing on!?" she pondered out loud, smacking the wand against her leg.

"Let me try!" I had already had multiple sorcery lessons.

"Just wear the frock!" Galinda sighed. "It's pretty!"

Galinda then attempted to show me how to toss my hair, which didn't work.

Finally, she handed me a hand mirror. I gazed into it, stunned. Staring back at me wasn't the face of a green-skinned girl, but that of an _emerald beauty. _"I have to go!" I stammered, not knowing what to think, running off to complete my lengthy class schedule.


	6. Lions, Fiyero, and Dreams Fulfilled

**AN: Finally, it's time for the Lion cub scene! This is kind of a long chapter because it also includes the train station scene. And the Fiyeraba starts here. :)**

**This chapter took A LOT of editing (this is one of my favorite Fiyeraba scenes) and I did have to reference the script, so I would like to thank whoever runs the blog Wickedly Wicked for posting the full script up on there.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Wicked (that's why it's called ****_Fan_****fiction). **

I arrived at Dr. Dillamond's class so early I expected to have a few minutes of silence before anyone entered the classroom. At least I wasn't late, like Galinda was going to be, as usual. If that girl were to study instead of giving green girls makeovers and dancing through life with her boyfriend, she wouldn't have all C's and D's.

To my surprise, I was not the first person to arrive at the classroom, as I usually was. A now-familiar boy with medium-toned brown hair and eyes, about my height, was already sitting in a desk two rows behind me. Galinda's new boyfriend. _Fiyero. _I had heard he was always late to everything, so it didn't make sense that he would arrive first to class. He looked me over, and smiled awkwardly. He was probably contemplating why I was green, if he even had the capacity to contemplate.

"What is it?" I asked, worried when he didn't drop his gaze.

A strange, glassy look glazed over his eyes as he looked at me. He sighed softly. "It's just, you've been…Galindafied. You don't have to do that, you know."

I was very confused. Fiyero Tiggular, a high-status prince, was actually _talking_ to me. And he was trying to _compliment _me on how I looked before Galinda made me over…?

Before I could think of a good enough response, Dr. Dillamond and the majority of the class strolled in. Dr. Dillamond appeared deeply saddened, which worried me that something worse was happening in Oz. He set down a stack of paperwork on his desk and began to address the class.

"This is my last day here at Shiz," Dr. Dillamond commenced, voice sounding just as depressed as my heart felt. My mouth dropped open, almost unable to believe it. _It couldn't happen here in Oz! _"I am no longer permitted to teach. I want to thank you for your sharing your enthusiasm, your essays, no matter how feebly structured, and even, on occasion," he looked over at me, "your lunch."

A Gale Force guard entered the room, accompanied by Madame Morrible, and restrained the professor, nearly dragging him out to whatever terrible fate awaited him. I was too angry at the anti-Animal campaign that was sweeping Oz to speak up at that particular moment.

"Miss Elphaba…They can take away my job, but I shall continue speaking out….!" His voice trailed off into a distorted _baa_, my eyes filling with tears. I wished I could have done more to help him, to prevent this from happening, but there had been nothing more I could do. It wasn't something I was able to change. But one day, I would be with the Wizard, and I would be able to change the world.

A new professor, a tall man carrying two briefcases, walked into the room. He didn't even introduce himself to the class. Instead, he put one of the briefcases, which I could now see wasn't a briefcase after all-the structure was covered by a dark cloth and was an unrecognizable shape-onto the teacher's desk. He tore the cloth off the object, revealing a Lion cub, crying and trembling, inside a structure made of metal bars.

"This," he began, an evil smile creeping across his face, "is a cage. We will be seeing more and more of them in the future. This innovation is actually for the Animal's own good."

A group of excited-looking students huddled around, watching in apparent amazement with the contraption that was holding the baby Animal hostage.

"If it's so good for him, then why is he trembling?" I cried, taken aback by this cruelty.

"Oh, he's just excited to be here!" The cub whined, and the professor slapped it with a long pole. It yelped in fear. "One of the benefits of caging a Lion cub while he's young is that he will never learn how to speak."

"What…?" I was getting dizzy from panic. He just couldn't hurt the poor Animal! He _couldn't_! The poor thing hadn't done anything wrong, and even if it did, it _still_ didn't deserve such horrendible treatment!

I leaned over to the closest person to me, and whispered into his ear. "Can you imagine a world where Animals are kept in _cages _and they never speak!? What should I do?"

That was when I realized it was Fiyero I was talking to. "I don't know," he replied numbly.

"Well, somebody has to…DO SOMETHING!"

My fingers tingled a bit, and I closed my eyes. When I opened them, everyone in the class was frozen. Suddenly, they all began to jerk uncontrollably, as if they were puppets hanging from a string. _Oh Oz, this is all my fault! _I realized. I had lost control of my powers again!

I noticed the subtle sound of hyperventilation coming from the opposite end of the room. Fiyero, the Winkie Prince, was stumbling toward me. His hands were trembling slightly with confusion. Why hadn't he been affected by my strange burst of magic like everyone else?

"What's happening?" he asked, confused.

"I don't know. I just got mad…and…" I couldn't explain to someone else how I lost control of my magical powers when I got angry. It was too complicated.

"Don't get mad at me…" Fiyero said, whisking the cage off the desk and darting out the door. When I lingered behind, he looked back. "Are you coming?"

"Be careful!" I warned, my heart racing. I ran after Fiyero, as fast as I could.

"We can't just let him loose anywhere, you know," I considered. "We have to find someplace safe."

"Don't you think I realize that? You must think I'm really stupid, don't you?" His voice was chilling but…beautiful.

"No," I retorted. "Not _really _stupid."

"Why is it that every time I see you you're causing some sort of commotion?"

"I don't cause commotions. I _am _one."

"That's for sure," he bit back.

"Sorry," I whispered, worrying I had hurt his feelings. "But you could have just walked away back there. No matter how shallow and self-absorbed you pretend to be…"

"Excuse me," he cut in. "There's no pretense here. I happen to be genuinely self-absorbed and deeply shallow."

The Fiyero I saw now and the Fiyero I had seen at the Ozdust seemed to be two different people. When could he understand that he was standing next to the green girl and not to Galinda?

"No you're not," I muttered. "Or you wouldn't be so unhappy."

He glared at me like I had a snake on my head. "Fine. If you don't want my help…"

"No!" I corrected, feeling embarrassed. "I do!" I turned my attention back to the cub. "Poor little thing, it's trembling!" I looked back at Fiyero. "I didn't mean for…"

"What didn't you mean to do? Why was _I _the only one you didn't do it to?"

I didn't answer, not knowing myself why the Winkie Prince was unaffected by the spell I accidentally cast.

We set the Lion cub down in the dense grove of Quoxwood trees behind the school. The grove was the beginning of the Gillikin Forest, which carried He handed the cage to me, and I released the Lion cub, which ran off into the forest. Free. I sighed with relief. I had saved one Animal. Now I only had thousands more to go…

"Ow!" Fiyero was bending down onto the soft, wet ground of the forest. He had a cupped hand placed on his cheek, where a small drop of blood trickled down. A cut of some sort, likely from the Lion's claws.

"Oh, look, you're bleeding! It must have scratched you!" I whispered, placing my green hand against his warm, bloodstained cheek. Gazing at him, I suddenly felt heat rise up into my cheeks, and I had a sudden desire to…_kiss _him. My hands tingled, butterflies began fluttering in my stomach, and the whole world seemed to stop right before my eyes. What was I _thinking_?!

"Yeah. Or maybe it scratched me," he mumbled, eyes fixed on mine. Curse his brainlessness! Then, he realized that I was touching him. He unlocked his magical gaze. "I'd better get to safety…I mean…I mean the cub. Get the _cub _to safety." He walked away briskly, not looking back.

"Fiyero!" I called out to him, heart aching, but it was too late. Fiyero was nowhere to be seen.

I was crushed. Fiyero had helped me save the Lion cub, but he definitely didn't love me. _Silly me, _I thought. _Why would he love me? I've just met him!_

"Don't wish," I sang quietly to myself. "Don't start. Wishing only wounds the heart." It was just muttering to the tune of the lullaby Mother had sung to me every night when she was alive, trying to comfort myself with its familiarity. "I wasn't born for the rose and pearl! There's a girl I know, he loves _her _so. And I'm _not_ that girl!" A hot, fat tear slid down my cheek, and I wiped it away with the back of my hand. Why did I suddenly feel like I loved him? He was the same boy who asked my roommate to the Ozdust, the same boy who didn't have a care in the world. So what had changed moments earlier? Nothing. It was all an illusion. He loved Galinda, and everyone knew it. Fiyero wasn't one to love me, the green girl, the artichoke.

It began to rain, cold drops of sadness beating down on my face. I stared up at the gray sky, all hope washed away by the water dripping off the clouds.

Madame Morrible rushed forward, holding a sturdy umbrella in one hand and a green envelope in the other. "I have finally heard back from the Wizard!" she shouted excitedly. "He wishes to _meet_ you!"  
My eyes seemed to dry themselves as I heard the news. My face brightened. "He asked for _me? Personally?" _

"Yes, my dear! I heard how upset you were with Dr. Dillamond and all, but you see, when one door closes, another one opens!"

Before I even knew what I was doing, I jumped out from under the umbrella and hugged Madame Morrible.

"Oh, you mustn't get wet!" she cried. The HeadShizstress made some simple hand motions, and the clouds cleared. The sun emerged from behind its cover. "Did I ever mention, weather is my specialty?"

We hugged again. "See you later!" I called.

"Miss Elphaba, make me proud!" She handed me the green envelope, covered in emerald glitter and emblazoned with the Oz seal.

"I will! I'll try!"

I felt the best I would ever feel in my life. I had to let Galinda know. After all, she was my friend.

* * *

A week later, I arrived at the train station, ready to make the journey to the Emerald City that I knew would change my life.

I found Galinda in the near the train platform. She was talking to Nessarose, and Boq was standing tiredly behind her.

As I readied myself to board the train, Galinda walked over to me.

"Remember: eye contact. And don't forget to tell him how _wonderful _he is. Wizards _love _that. And be yourself." She looked at me. "Well…within reason."

Nessa hugged me, and I realized how sad I would be to leave her. My sister, the only person who really cared about me after Mother died. Suddenly, I had an idea. I pulled the family heirloom mirror I had brought with me out of my suitcase, handing it to her.

"Take it," I told her. "You deserve it more than I ever did." Before handing the mirror to Nessa, I whispered the protection spell to it. "_Pala rego." _The looking glass glowed for a moment before the spell was complete. I smashed it hard against Nessa's wheelchair to demonstrate. "No matter how many times you drop it, Nessa, this mirror will never break."

"Elphaba, I'm so proud of you, and I know Father would be, too," she congratulated me, with an affectionate hug. I highly doubted our father would be proud of me if I _was _the Wizard of Oz, let alone if I was going to meet him. "We're all proud, aren't we?"

I looked at her, her beautiful face, now gazing into her new mirror, her bright smile blindingly beautiful, and wondered if Nessa could make it without my support. "You'll be alright, won't you?"

"She'll be _fine_," Galinda cut in, trying to stop me before I got too worried. "Biq will take care of her, right?"

"BOQ!" he corrected, but Galinda didn't seem to get the message. He looked at Nessa. "I…I can't _do _this anymore," he muttered almost inaudibly. I felt sorry for him, but it was almost impossible to choose between people who I cared about to fall in love. My sister, though, was the most important person to me, and she deserved Boq. But I still felt like I was forcing him into a relationship he didn't want. He walked away, head in his hands.

"Boq!" Nessa called to him, but he didn't return.

"Nessa, maybe he's just not the right one for you," Galinda consoled.

"No!" Nessa interjected, taking offense to Galinda's comment. "It's _me _that's not right. Elphaba, just _go._ I'll be fine!"

"Nessa, wait!" I called out to her. But before I could even say one last goodbye, she wheeled herself away, following after Boq. I knew I would miss her more than anyone.

"Let her go," Galinda told me. "She'll have to manage without you. We _all _will." Galinda wrapped her arms around me in a hug.

"Please!" I retorted. "You'll barely _notice_ I'm gone. Besides," I choked out, "you have _Fiyero_. Where is he, anyway?" I looked around, noticing that the Winkie Prince hadn't met me at the train station like everyone else.

"I don't know, either," Galinda pondered. "He's distant, he's moodified," her face contorted in an expression of disgust, "and he's been _thinking_, which really worries me. I never knew he _cared _so much about that old goat…"

Just then, as if summoned by our conversation about him, Fiyero showed up at the station. "Elphaba," he said, handing me a small bouquet of flowers, "I'm happy for you."

"Yes," Galinda cooed in a girly voice, "we all are."

"Uh…listen. I've been thinking…"

I rolled my eyes arrogantly. "Yes, I've heard."

"About that Lion cub, and…everything." I froze, as if I had suddenly gone back in time to that moment in the woods setting the poor Animal free, and having the feelings I had for him then. "I think about that day a lot."

Fiyero was looking at me, smiling and winking. Galinda noticed that Fiyero was giving me his attention instead of her and gave me an angry look.

"Really?" I asked him. "So do I!" The words came out before I could stop them, and I winced when I remembered Galinda was next to me.

"Me too!" Galinda chimed in, probably trying to shift Fiyero's attention onto her. "Poor Dr. Dillamond! It makes me want to…um…take a stand! So I've been thinking of…uh…changing my name…"

Fiyero nodded, slightly confused. My jaw dropped. She was going to change her _name _to attract her boyfriend's attention?

"Since Dr. Dillamond had is _own _way of pronouncing my name, in solidarity, and to express my outrage, I will henceforth be known no more as Galinda, with a GA, but as simply _Glinda!"_

"Oh, how admirable!" breathed Fiyero. He looked back at me and winked. "Elphaba, good luck!" He walked quickly away, likely heading back toward the Shiz campus.

Galinda broke down in tears, trembling. She stomped her foot hard on the pavement. "There, see?" she yelled.

"Galinda…" I wrapped my arms around her trying to comfort her.

"It's _Glinda _now," she bit back. "Stupid idea! I don't even know what made me say it!" She rested her tear-streaked face in her hands, continuing to sob.

I laid my hands against her shoulders, feeling her body quivering. "It doesn't matter what your name is! _Everybody loves you_!"

"I don't care! I want _him_!" she spat, looking behind her as if she could will Fiyero back into her presence. "I don't even think he's perfect anymore, and I _still _want him!"

I sighed, deciding to leave myself out of this. I didn't want her to catch on to what had been going on between Fiyero and I since the day Dr. Dillamond was fired. Besides, I probably wouldn't be much of a help as a relationship coach. Instead, I smiled. I had an idea to make her feel better.

"Come with me!" I said, gently squeezing her tense hand.

"To where?" she asked, confused.

"To the Emerald City!" I took out the green envelope.

"Really!?" Glinda looked at me in disbelief, an excited smile spreading across her face.


	7. Look to the Western Sky

**AN: This is really not my best chapter, but better ones are soon to come. My Defying Gravity is a little AU-ish just because it's outside instead of in an attic, but I guess it'll be interesting...**

**Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows! I really appreciate them!**

**DISCLAIMER: If I owned Wicked, I wouldn't be able to call it Fanfiction.**

* * *

The train ride to the Emerald City took a full day. Glinda and I talked for a while, and I studied the rest of the way to make sure I didn't get behind on my schoolwork.

Finally, we reached the Emerald City. The moment I stepped off the train and saw the walls of green, my heart started to race. I was _actually _in the Emerald City. It was almost too hard to believe, and bound to go too quickly. "Just one short day," I muttered.

I took out the envelope Madame Morrible had given to me. Inside, along with the letter from the Wizard I had read over and over until my eyes grew tired, was a note.

_Dear Miss Elphaba,_

Congratulations on earning your dreams!

I am terribly sorry about Dr. Dillamond. But, as I told you earlier, when one door closes, another one opens! I'll see you again soon!

Oh, and so will the Wizard!

Best Wishes,

Madame Morrible

HeadShizstress

Shiz University

"One short day in the Emerald City! One short day full of so much to do! Every way that you look in this city, there's something exquisite you'll want to visit before the day's through!" we cried.

"There are buildings tall as Quoxwood trees!" I cooed, in awe at the tall buildings that seemed to literally scrape the sky.

"Dress salons!"

"And libraries!"

"Palaces!"

"Museums! A hundred strong!"

"There are wonders like I've never seen! It's all grand!"

"And it's all _green_!" I didn't think I could ever be happier. After all, I had always longed for _normal_. Here in the Emerald City, green _was_ normal. In fact, it was celebrated.

"I think we've found the place where we belong!" we sang to each other. "I want to be in this hoi polloi!"

"So I'll be back for good someday!" I told her surely.

"To make my life and make my way!"

"But for today," we grasped hands, "we'll wander and enjoy! One short day in the Emerald City! One short day to have a _lifetime _of fun! One short day, and we're warning the city: now that we're in here, you'll know that we've been here before we are done!"

"Hurry!" Glinda said, pointing to a sign advertising the show. "We'll be late for Wiz-O-Mania!"

I took the tickets back out of their envelope, tucked the paper into my suitcase, and grabbed Glinda's hand. As we walked toward the Emerald Theatre, I grasped her hand tighter.

"I want to remember this moment always!" I said, emotion finally escaping from deep inside. "Nobody's pointing, nobody's staring…for the first time, I'm somewhere where I _belong_!"

"You look positively…emerald!" Glinda laughed. I smiled,

We walked straight toward Wiz-O-Mania.

"Who's the mage whose major itinerary is making all Oz merrier?" the choir sang as mystical, long-necked humanoid creatures danced across the stage. "Who's the sage who sagely sailed in to save our posteriors? Whose enthuse for hot-air ballooning has all of Oz honeymooning? Ooh, ooh, ooh! _Wiz_n't he wonderful? _Our Wonderful Wizard!_"

"One short day in the Emerald City! One short day to have a lifetime of fun! What a way to be seeing the city!"

"Where so many roam to…"Glinda said.

"We'll call it home, too!" I finished. Something about the Emerald City felt like it was already home, though I couldn't say why.

Our voices formed together. "And then, just like now, we can say. We're just two friends…"

"Two good friends!" I grasped Glinda's hands and looked into her blue eyes.

"Two _best _friends!" she corrected. She was right. We were two best friends, the only two people in Oz who felt the exact same connection with each other.

"Sharing one wonderful, one short day!"

A green-clad guard stepped out of a room several yards outside the café. "Elphaba Thropp," he began, "the Wizard will see you now!"

* * *

Glinda and I walked down a long hallway covered with emerald-colored panels of stained glass. At the end of the hallway was the Throne Room. It was stunning, dazzling, and fit for a king. _The Wizard's throne, _I realized as a silver head illuminated and began to move by itself above the throne.

"I am Oz," the head shouted, "the Great and Terrible!" Glinda was speechless with fear, but although I was frightened as well, I knew better than to break down in front of the Wizard of Oz.

I took a deep breath. "I'm Elphaba Thropp, your Terribleness, and…"

The head slowly creaked to a stop, before freezing stiffly against the throne.

"Elphaba, is that you? I didn't realize!" A man had stepped out from behind the majestic chair and pulled the head out of the way. He had neatly combed brown hair that was beginning to gray and bald in places, and looked extremely distinguished, as a Wonderful Wizard would be expected to look. The Wizard took off his green top hat and bowed to us. He unhooked his emerald cape and hung it on a hook.

"Which is which?" he asked, pointing to both of us.

"She's Elphaba," Glinda responded, pointing to me. The Wizard nodded.

"Who must you be?" he asked the blonde.

"Glinda. The GA is silent." I rolled my eyes and smacked a hand against my forehead. Why did she _have _to say something dumb in front of the _Wizard of Oz_?

"I am a sentimental man," sang the Wizard softly, taking my hand in his, "who always longed to be a father. That's why I do the best I can to treat each citizen of Oz as son or daughter." For a moment, I actually felt bad for the Wizard. Sympathy took over. I had longed for many things: to have a normal skin color, that Father would stop yelling terrible things at me when he was angry, that Fiyero Tiggular would love me. None of those things would ever be true. The Wizard had always wanted a child of his own, and he deserved one.

"So Elphaba, I'd like to raise you high, 'cause I think everyone deserves the chance to _fly_! And helping you with your ascent allows me to feel so…_parental. _For I am a sentimental man."

Looking into the Wizard's eyes, I noticed that something about him seemed bizarrely…_familiar. _I had probably seen a picture of him somewhere or something, or someone who just looked a bit like him. But I couldn't help but wonder if my parents or I had known him before he was the Wizard. I didn't know why, but I felt a strange connection with him.

"Madame," he said, "bring out the book!"  
To my surprise, Madame Morrible came into the room, holding a thick, leather-bound book.

"Is that _the Grimmerie_?" Glinda cooed.

"Yes," replied Madame Morrible.

"Can I touch it?" she asked, speaking before thinking.

"No." Glinda backed away.

"I would like you to perform a Levitation Spell on Chistery here." A young Monkey walked in to the room. "He has always wanted to know how to fly, and you are going to give him the chance!"

Madame Morrible placed the heavy volume in my hands. The leather was smooth on my skin, the pages worn with age. It was written in another language: the Lost Language of Spells.

"Don't be discouraged if you can't read it," assured Madame Morrible. "I can only read one or two spells, and I have studied them for years on end."

I flipped through the pages, swiftly but carefully. One spell just called to me for seemingly no reason, and instinct told me it was the right one. The words were written in a strange alphabet, definitely not a language related to Ozian. I didn't know what they meant, but without realizing, I had figured out the sounds each letter made. My lips were able to form the words, and I began chanting.

"_Aven tatey aven tatey aven faska maligress…"_

"Oh, Chistery, what an experience you're about to have!" Madame Morrible told the Monkey as I continued chanting.

"_Aven atey aven tatey aven faska maligressss."  
_Chistery dropped to the floor and began twitching madly and screaming in pain. My heart felt as if it had just cracked in two. I had never heard such a heartbreaking scream in my life! "What happened?" I shouted, my brain full of terrible things. I had just hurt poor little Chistery! He was only a baby Monkey! He didn't deserve this pain!

"Nothing's wrong, Elphaba! It's just the transition phase!"

"NO!" I insisted. "Make it stop! It's _hurting _him!" I watched in horror as giant wings sprouted from Chistery's shoulders. He began running around, still shaking and screeching in agony.

"Reverse it!" I demanded. "Quick! _Tell me how to reverse it_!"

"You can't!" Madame Morrible half shrieked, half laughed.

"What!?" This couldn't be possible! _My fault_, I chastised myself.

"Spells are irreversible!" she replied in the same evil tone.

"See?" she told the Wizard. "I knew she had powers! I told you so!"

A shocking realization hit me in the chest like a bullet: this had been planned all along. Madame Morrible and the Wizard knew this spell would hurt Chistery, and they still allowed me to perform it! I had always figured there had to be something up with that fish-faced excuse for a HeadShizstress, but I had never, until now, realized that Morrible was wicked to the core.

"And it's only the beginning!" The Wizard pulled back a green curtain covering the back wall of the room. The wall wasn't a wall at all, but a cage full of around twenty Monkeys. _And they all had wings. _They were all trapped, and gazed at me with terrified eyes that could only say _Help me!_ I couldn't let the Wizard do this to these poor creatures. Worst of all, they either didn't have the nerve to speak or had lost that ability entirely.

"They'll make perfect spies!" the Wizard continued.

"Spies!?" This was all the Wizard's fault! He wanted to hurt poor Monkeys!

"Yes, you're right, that's a harsh word," he corrected. "Scouts, more like. They'll fly around Oz and report subversive Animal activity!"

"You can't read this book!" I yelled, trying to slap him with it. But he ducked out of the way just in time. "You have no power at all! That's why you need me to be your Grand Vizier! That's why you need Monkey spies! That's why you _used _me!" I did what I had to: I grabbed the Grimmerie and ran.

* * *

"Elphie!" Glinda yelled, trailing behind me.

I ran until I found myself in an old broom closet. It was larger than most broom closets. Inside was a coat rack full of the Wizard's many capes and a pile of old brooms. I grabbed two black capes and a broom before running back through one of the palace's emergency exits. Glinda followed me.

"Elphie!" she said as soon as we were both outside. "Why can't you just stay calm for once, instead of flying off the handle? I hope you're happy! I hope you're happy now! I hope you're glad how you just hurt your cause forever! I hope you think you're clever!"

"I hope _you're _happy!" I spat. "I hope you're happy, too! I hope you're proud how you would grovel in submission to feed your own ambition!" Upon seeing the distressed look in Glinda's eyes, I realized I had been a bit too harsh. But I had no regrets in that moment.

"So though I can't imagine how," we both yelled, voices sharp, "I hope you're happy right now!"

It was cold outside. My icy breath stung my skin, and the first snowfall of the year began to fall around us. Frost decorated the lower branches of the Quoxwood trees and the icy ground of the Yellow Brick Road. The outdoor speakers crackled to life as a voice echoed through Oz. It was Madame Morrible.

"Citizens of Oz," she began, "there is an enemy out there who must be destroyed. Believe _nothing _she says, for she is _pure evil_, responsible for the mutilation of these poor, innocent Monkeys! Her green skin is but an outward manifestation of her twister nature: this distortion, this repulsion, this WICKED WITCH!"

Terrified for myself for the first time in my life, I barricaded the emergency door with the broom I had grabbed from the closet. Had I done something wrong? _No_, I told myself. _I'm being framed. I did nothing wrong._ Still, the more I thought about it, the more I believed it, that I really _was _a Wicked Witch.

The speaker fell silent in burst of crackles. "Don't be afraid!" Glinda whispered to me.

"I'm not," I lied, trying to keep my cool. I had to stay strong for the Animals. I had to stay strong for Oz. "It's the Wizard who should be afraid," I decided, "of _me."_

Glinda put her hands firmly on my shoulders, as if she were giving me some of her strength. "Elphie, just say you're sorry, before it's too late! You can still be with the Wizard, what you've worked and waited for! _You can have all you ever wanted_!"

I sighed. It was true; all I had ever truly wanted in my life was to be with the Wizard. Or so I thought. Deep inside, I felt another part of me tugging at my heartstrings. _I'm not meant to be with the Wizard_, I realized suddenly. Not if the Wizard was mistreating Animals. All along, that hadn't been my real dream, just a cover to get fate to bring me to this moment. _I'm meant to defy anything in order to save the Animals. To defy the Wizard, to defy Morrible, to defy Animal cruelty and injustice for all of Oz. I'm meant to defy gravity. _

"But I don't want it," I finally told Glinda. "No. I _can't _want it anymore." Power and dreams were nothing to me anymore. I was going to do all that I could for everyone I loved.

Wet snowflakes fell into my black hair, which was flowing down my back in a matted, wet mess. "Something has changed within me. Something is not the same. I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game. Too late for second guessing, too late to go back to sleep! It's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes…and _leap_! It's time to try defying gravity! I think I'll try defying gravity, and you can't pull me down!"

I stood there shivering in the ice cold wind, and suddenly I felt as if I really could amount to something. "Can't I make you understand, you're having delusions of grandeur!" Glinda warned. I didn't listen, swatting her away like a pesky fly.

"I'm through accepting limits, 'cause someone says they're so! Some things I cannot change, but 'til I try I'll never know! Too long I've been afraid of losing love I guess I've lost! Well, if that's love, it comes at much too high a cost!" Father had always though of me as a tragedy, a disaster. This was my chance to prove him wrong, to prove Nessa wrong, to prove _all of Oz _wrong. "I'd sooner buy defying gravity! Kiss me goodbye, I'm defying gravity, and you can't pull me down!"

There were frantic knocks on the exit door: the Wizard's guards were trying to pry it open. I had an idea of their intentions: They wanted to kill me, the Wicked Witch, or throw me in Southstairs to die.

I opened the Grimmerie to the same page I had unintentionally hurt Chistery with: the Levitation Spell. I was going to defy gravity, and if my new wings caused me excruciating pain, I deserved it. I had hurt Chistery, and I would never stop regretting that. And everyone deserved the chance to fly! The Wizard had better think about it the next time he says that!

"_Aven tatey aven tatey aven faska maligress…"_

"Elphie, stop it! That's what started it all, that horrendible book!"

"_Aven atey aven tatey aven faska maligressss…" _

I had finished chanting the spell. Nothing had happened. Snowflakes dotted my eyelashes and blurred my vision, and I placed my conical, black hat on my head to warm myself.

"Where are your wings?" Glinda demanded. The truth was, I didn't know. I sat there in the cold, all hopes melting with each snowflake that fell into my now-wet hair. "Maybe you're not as powerful as you think you are, Elphie!"

I sat there, leaning over the Grimmerie in disgust. Glinda was right. It was that Ozforsaken book that had started it all. And now, I had probably performed the spell incorrectly.

"Sweet Oz!"

I almost literally jumped out of my skin. Something strange seemed to float through the air, something _magical. _Sure enough, when I turned around, the broom I had used to barricade the door was levitating. Actually _levitating_! I grabbed the broom and held it in my cold, green hands. The handle was wet and slippery and the straw was soggy with melted snow, but there was extraordinary magic growing inside of this ordinary broomstick. "See! I told you, Glinda!" I proudly shouted at the top of my lungs. "I _told _you!"

I held out the broom horizontally, ready to climb on at any moment. "Grab on!" I yelled. I had to keep Glinda safe. The guards were going to figure out that we were outside at some point, and we would have to fly off before that could happen.

Glinda placed a shaky hand on the floating broomstick. Her curly, blonde hair was matted with tangles and water, and her face was red and raw. Glinda looked brave, though; she seemed to be wearing her Gillikin beauty like a suit of unbreakable armor.

"Unlimited," I sang quietly, trying to calm my own heart rate while speaking to Glinda. "Together we're _unlimited. _Together we'll be the greatest team there's ever been. Dreams the way we planned 'em…"

"If we work in tandem," Glinda sang, tears falling down her cheeks and freezing in the cold air.

"There's no fight we cannot win," we both sang in perfect unison. "Just you and I defying gravity, with you and I defying gravity.."

"They'll never bring us down," I finished.

Glinda let go of the broom's handle and backed away. "Elphie, you're trembling!" She snatched one of the Wizard's black cloaks I had taken from the broom closet. They were meant to keep the two of us warm. "Here," she said, fastening it around my neck. "Put this on."

I stood up, feeling defiant but safe in Glinda's presence.

"I hope you're happy," Glinda warned, "now that you're choosing this."

It was at that moment that I realized that Glinda really was taking sides with the Wizard. After all he had done; to me, to the Monkeys, to Oz; she still wanted the authority, the power, everything that came with being with the Wizard.

"You too," I said, truly wishing her the best of luck. "I hope it brings you bliss."

"I really hope you get it, and you don't live to regret it!" we sang to each other. "I hope you're happy in the end! I hope you're happy my _friend._"

At that moment, three guards came around the back side of the palace, where we were still standing. They seized Glinda, who shrieked with terror. In my mind, it had been my duty to keep her safe. I had already failed myself, but I was still going to do the best I could to save my best friend from danger.

"It's not her you want!" I shouted, climbing onto the broomstick. "She has _nothing _to do with this! _I'm _the one you want! It's _me_! It's _MEEEEE!" _I consciously urged the broom to fly. As it began to levitate, I felt a tingling in my fingertips, a truly magical feeling.

As I flew up, I addressed Glinda. "So if you care to find me, look to the western sky! As someone told me lately, everyone deserves the chance to fly! And if I'm flying solo," I reassured her, "at least I'm flying free! To those who'd ground me, take a message back from me! Tell them how I am defying gravity." In reality, I was defying much more than gravity: the Wizard, Shiz University, and Madame Morrible. I was defying accomplishment and lifelong dreams. I was defying Animal cruelty. I was defying who I once thought I was. But I knew I would've made the same choice if I could do it over. "I'm flying high, defying gravity, and soon I'll match them in renown! And nobody in all of Oz, no Wizard that there is or was, is ever gonna bring me down!"

As I flew away I gave Glinda one last glance. And I could swear I could hear honeysweet voice crying, "I hope you're happy!"

_Goodbye, Glinda, _I thought, tears stinging my eyes. _My best friend in all of Oz._

* * *

**Please read and review!**

**~EmeraldElphaba**


	8. Lost Your Heart

**AN: Double update today because I had time! :)**

**Here is the Wicked Witch of the East scene, which is actually one of the climatic scenes in this story (and also where I originally got the title from, if you can find it :)**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Wicked.**

* * *

I wrapped my cloak around myself before flying off through the chilly March breeze. High up in the sky, where I was flying, the watery clouds dropped fat droplets of icy cold water onto my face.

I was going to see Father and Nessa. I needed to talk to them. I hadn't seen either my father or my younger sister in four years. I felt guilty every second of every day that I hadn't visited Munchkinland, but I hadn't had the time. If I got caught helping Animals (or doing anything, for that matter), I would most likely be killed. Everyone in Oz believed that I was a Wicked Witch. I had defied the Wizard, something completely unheard of in Oz, and now I was working against him. Most Ozians had no idea what the Wizard had done. In fact, Glinda, Madame Morrible, and I were pretty much the only ones. Everyone else was told that I had hurt Chistery and the other Monkeys on purpose with evil intentions. It was hard being a Wicked Witch. But anything is worth it for what is right.

I wrapped my broomstick in my cloak and hid the bundle behind a large boulder. The spot was well-concealed by two fallen Quoxwood trees and would be easy to remember when I returned for my belongings.

I carefully climbed the ivy that had grown on the outer walls of the Governor's Mansion since I had last visited four years prior and onto the balcony. I sat there, my long hair billowing through the wind under my well-known black hat, watching Nessarose.

I thought Nessa was beautiful now, but in a very different way than she used to be. Her beauty now was almost frightening. Nessarose had always had light brown curls, but her hair had been straightened, darkened, and tied into a tight bun. She wore a black dress with a high collar and stiff neckline, which I had never seen her wear before. She was only nineteen years old, but she appeared aged from the stress in her eyes.

I opened the door and stepped in, while muttering, "It seems the beautiful get more beautiful…"

Nessarose shrieked and dropped her mirror, which, having been enchanted, did not break.

"…while the green just get greener." Nessa clearly hadn't been expecting me. "Sorry. Did I scare you? I seem to have that effect on people."

Nessa relaxed. "It's so good to see you!" she said, her voice falling apart with emotion. She gathered herself quickly before shouting, "What are you doing here?!"

I sighed. "Well, there's no place like home," I cooed, running my hand along the decorative wardrobe in the living room. I really hadn't enjoyed being at home when I was a child, after Mother died. Father had beat me and yelled at me until I hid somewhere he couldn't find me, and I had terrible nightmares every night. I had to crawl into Nessa's bed with her sometimes, and she would comfort me until I fell asleep again. "And I never thought I'd say this, but I need Father's help."

"That's impossible," Nessarose said, staring at me like I had a talking mushroom on my head.  
"No, it isn't!" I protested. "Not if you ask him! He'd do it for you, Nessa…"

"Your father's dead," explained Nessa bitterly.

"What!?" How could this be true? I hadn't received a letter or notification of Father's death. Then I realized that the government probably would want to avoid sending letters to a Wicked Witch.

"He's dead. _I'm_ the Governor now." Nessa had a look of mixed sadness and anger in her eyes. "After he learned what you'd done, how you _disgraced_ us, he died of _shame, _embarrassed to death!"

"Well, I'm glad! It's better now!" I said, without thinking. Father had made my life miserable every night until I was sent off to Shiz, and sometimes talked badly of my mother.

"That's a _wicked _thing to say!" Nessarose said, stunned by the evil wish.

I placed a soothing hand on Nessa's shoulder. "But now it's just us, and _you _can help me, and…"

"Well, shut up!" Nessa snapped. "First of all, I can't harbor a _fugitive._" She spat the word as if it were a curse word. "I'm an unelected official! And _why _should I help _you_?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but the new Governor of Munchkinland cut me off.

"You fly around Oz trying to rescue Animals you've never even _met, _but not once have you ever _thought _to use your powers to rescue _me!_"

That wasn't true at all. I practically spent my every waking moment thinking about Nessarose, how much I missed her…

"All of my life I've depended on _you_! How do you think that feels?" Nessa placed her hands, fingers spread solidly apart, on the golden wheels of her brand-new wheelchair. She began thrusting the wheels forward, with violence, towards me. "All of my life I've depended on you, and this _hideous _chair with wheels! Scrounging for scraps of pity to pick up, and longing to kick up my heels…" Nessarose looked down at her feet with sheer despair on her face.

"Nessa, there isn't a spell for everything!" I explained. I had read the entire Grimmerie and found no trace of a spell that could allow crippled legs to move. "The power is…mysterious. It's not like cobbling up a pair of…" I found myself staring down at a pair of silver shoes, glittering like the stars in the night sky. _The shoes. _Of course! Why hadn't I thought of it earlier? If I couldn't fix Nessa's legs themselves, I could place some sort of enchantment on the shoes to allow her to walk. "Wait…"

I took the heavy, leather book out of one of my hidden dress pockets. The pages were slightly wet with rainwater and worn with exposure to the elements, but it still held a tingly sort of magic, something special and unique. I opened the book and carefully flipped page after page until I found a spell. I couldn't be sure it was the right one, but my instincts told me it would help.

I held one hand over Nessarose's shoes. _"Ambulahn dare pahto pahpoot mullah daca caldapess."_

Nessa pulled back. "What are you doing?" she began, terrified.

I continued chanting. "_Lahfenato lahfenatum pede pede caldapess."_

"

My shoes! They feel like they're on fire!" The silver shoes were turning a pinkish color.

"Ambulahn dare pahto pahpoot mullah daca caldapess.

"Elphaba! What have you done to my shoes!" The silver color was now completely absent, replaced by a deep ruby red.

"_Lahfenato lahfenatum pede pede caldapesssssss." _The spell was complete. All I had to do now was hope and wait for the magic to take its full effect.

There was a slight yelp as Nessarose's feet began to move off of the foot rests of the wheelchair and onto the floor. In an unnatural sweeping movement, her legs straightened. She was no longer sitting in a golden wheelchair. Nessarose Thropp was standing for the first time in her life. Immediately, her newly working legs gave out, and Nessa collapsed to the floor.

My hands reached forward to touch the shoes, to feel their ruby-colored beauty and their magic. I tugged on one, but noticed that they could not come off. Nobody would ever be able to steal my sister's ability to walk. I had succeeded.

"No!" she said as I attempted to assist her in getting up. "Don't help me!" Without any help, Nessa pushed her arms off of the hardwood floor. She placed her arms on either side of her until she had a steady balance. Nessarose was standing!

"At last, I've done what long ago I should," I told myself. "And finally, from these powers, something _good_! Finally, something good!" Nessa had received her lifelong dream: the ability to walk.

"Boq!" she yelled, running over to a silver bell and ringing it. "Boq, come quickly!"

"But no one can know I'm here!" I protested. It wasn't that I didn't want to see Boq; in fact, I would give almost anything to talk to him again, talk to him like we were almost…_friends. _But if anyone found out that I was in Munchkinland…well, I was in unimaginable amounts of trouble.

It was too late. Nessarose sat back in her glistening red velvet and gold wheelchair, just as Boq, wearing silver garments with a matching cap, walked in.

"Madame?" he called. His face turned and his dark blue eyes met my dark brown ones, a glazed-over look in them. He seemed to have forgotten everything, all the good times we had…

"You!" The Munchkin brandished a letter opener like a knife, a blade gleaming with revenge. The one person at school who was _kind _to me was…ready to kill me!

Now, even Boq, who I had known for seventeen years, knew me as the Wicked Witch of the West.

"It's just me, Boq!" I pleaded. "It's me, Elphaba! I'm not going to hurt you!"

"You're lying!" he shouted. "It's all you ever do! You and your sister-she's as wicked as you are!"

I couldn't believe my ears. Nessarose was my sister. She had always been kind and gentle to everyone, human or Animal. She wouldn't hurt a _fly_! She couldn't be wicked! It wasn't possible! "Boq, what are you _talking_ about?"

"I'm talking about my life!" he said, lowering the makeshift knife. "Or…the little that's left of it." He pointed the letter opener at Nessa. "I'm not free to leave Munchkinland! None of us are! Ever since _she _took power, she's been stripping the Munchkins of our rights, and we didn't have many to begin with! And all…" He put the sharp object back into his pocket.

"To keep you here with me!" Nessa finished cheerfully. "But none of that matters anymore! Look!" She stood up on two feet and began walking toward Boq. The Munchkin's mouth dropped open.

"_You _did this for her?" he asked me, unable to contain his emotions.

"For both of us," Nessa answered before I could even open my mouth.

"Oh, Nessa!" Boq shouted in sheer joy. "This changes everything! Nessa?"

"Yes?"

"Oh, Nessa, surely now I'll matter _less _to you and you won't mind my leaving here tonight."

Nessarose gazed at Boq like he had lost his mind. _"Leaving?"_

"There's a ball that's being staged, announcing Glinda is engaged to Fiyero."

"Glinda!?" both Nessarose and I gasped in unison. I tried not to think about it. Glinda was getting engaged to Fiyero, who I had felt a…_connection_ to. _Never mind, _I told myself. _Why would he love the green girl?_

"Yes, Nessa, that's right. I've got to go appeal to her, express the way I feel to her…Nessa, I lost my heart to Glinda the moment I first saw her, and you know that."

Nessa, who had been gazing into her hand mirror again, dropped the enchanted looking glass in shock. "_Lost your heart_?" she sneered. "Well, we'll see about _that!_"

"Nessa, let him go!" I pleaded. I couldn't let her do anything to Boq. He hadn't done anything to deserve it!

"Did you think I'd let you _leave _me here flat?!"

Boq drew back, brandishing his weapon once again. "Don't come any closer!"

"You're going to lose your heart to _me, _I tell you, if I have to…I have to…" Her eyes fell to the Grimmerie, which I had left open on the floor. "_Magic spell you._"

Oh, no. There was no way in Oz she was about to do this. I reached toward her, but there was no stopping her. Her impulses had taken over, and she hadn't had any training in sorcery. She couldn't even read the Grimmerie! Nessarose flipped through the pages of the spell book, finally settling on a page unfamiliar to me.

"Don't you try to stop me!" Boq shouted, defiance in his voice.

"_Ah tum core tum ah tum tah tayk…"_

So my sister _was_ like me. She could read the Grimmerie. She just couldn't read it anywhere near correctly. "You're pronouncing the words all wrong!" I interjected, but I had been too late. The spell was finished.

A terrible scream echoed through the mansion. It was Boq, clutching his chest and gasping as if his lungs were being ripped out of his body. I couldn't stand to watch. My beloved _sister_, one of the kindest people I knew, had done this. "What is it, Boq?" Nessarose asked, horrified.

"It's…my heart. It feels like it's…_shrinking_!" Boq's lips were beginning to get a bluish tinge to them as he fell to the floor, seizing.

"Do something!" Nessa demanded.

I felt helpless. Just because I could read the Grimmerie didn't mean I was absolutely perfect. One of the only three or four people who had ever been kind of me…I had to do something, but…I couldn't.

"I can't!" I said. Nessa froze. "You can't reverse a spell once it's been cast!"

"What are we gonna do?" Nessa began to shake, her sugarcoated voice now fracturing to pieces.

I helped a screaming Boq into Nessa's old wheelchair and began wheeling him away. I felt as if my own heart were on fire watching him. "I'll have to find another spell," I told Nessa. "It's the only thing that might work!"

Boq was drifting in and out of consciousness. He seemed to be dying with every second that passed. I lifted him out of the wheelchair and onto the four-poster bed in Nessarose's bedroom, just outside the parlor. It was the same room we had slept in when we were kids. I opened the Grimmerie to a spell that roughly translated to "immortal statue." It didn't sound good, but was the only thing that could possibly work.

"Save him, please, just save him!" I could hear Nessa's voice saying. "My poor Boq, my sweet, my brave him! Don't leave me 'til my sorry life has ceased!"

Boq. I had to save him. He had been the only one who dared to talk to me when I was in elementary school, the only one who didn't bully me or stare. He was the closest I had ever had to a friend before I met Glinda. I never had called him a true friend, but I realized that there was part of us that still called to each other in friendship, in caring… I couldn't lose him. I refused to lose him.

I began to chant the spell, carefully and concisely. _"Vivahlos vivahlos meno non cordo meno vivahlos vivahlos meno non cordooo…"_

"Alone and loveless here," shouted Nessa, her delicate voice shattering again, becoming crazed and maniacal, something I had never heard from my younger sister, "with just the girl in the mirror! Just her and me, the _Wicked Witch of the East_! We deserved each other!"

I watched in horror as the spell began to take effect. One by one, every cell in Boq's motionless body began to transform, becoming cold, silver, and gleaming. His hands, the hands that had held mine in acceptance for the first time in my life, were no longer kind, human hands; they were solid metal. The spell spread through his body like wildfire, leaving his arms and legs nothing but tin. His already almost nonexistent breathing ceased completely, his body frozen in time, as his trunk became hollow, empty tin. I took one last look into his ocean blue eyes before they shattered and glazed over with silvery, gleaming metal. The Boq I once knew no longer existed.

Boq was asleep now, only his body was without any trace of having been human. A dead sleep. The spell had been my last resort to save him, so he could live without a heart. You could live without a heart in a tin body. It was my only option.

_I did this to him. _I almost felt ill thinking about it. _It was my fault Boq was a tin man._ I felt like my heart had cracked in half. All I had wanted for Boq was to repair amends with him, to become…friends, again. Now he was gone forever, condemned to life as nothing but a living statue, inhuman and heartless. And it was all my fault.

I returned to the parlor. "He's asleep now," I told Nessarose, trying to reassure her, and too afraid to tell her the truth.

"What about his heart?" she asked, tears rolling down her pale-skinned cheeks.

"It's alright. He won't need one now." I decided not to give her the details. She could figure it out on her own. Besides, it was too much for me to handle, being the one who did it to him.

"Well, I'd best be going now," I suggested hurriedly, tucking the Grimmerie away and placing my hat on my head. "What happened to those Monkeys was my fault."

"You're not going to save some Monkeys!" Nessa cried. "You're going to find _Fiyero._"

I sighed and made my way toward the door. "I'm going to the Emerald City!"

"No! Don't you dare leave me by myself!" Nessa grabbed the sleeve of my long, lace-covered black dress.

"Nessa, I have done all that I could for you, and it hasn't been enough!" I snapped. "So goodbye!" _All I could do for you would never be enough_, I thought, wishing I could've changed something before she went off the deep end. My sister. _I would do anything for you_.

I left the room and climbed down the ivy before wrapping myself in my cloak and climbing onto my broom. As I flew away into the sunrise, I heard a loud shout coming from the mansion, where I had left the doors open. There was a loud crash of metal, as Nessarose began to scream in apparent horror, apparent anger at me. I realized at that moment that I should have told her more information about what I…_did _to Boq. Tears formed in my eyes as I continued to fly toward the southwestern part of Oz, to the Emerald City.

"It was _Elphaba_, Boq! It was _Elphabaaaaaaaaaa_!"


	9. The Winds of Chance

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Wicked.**

* * *

As the afternoon turned into a sunset-illuminated evening, I arrived in the Emerald City. I hid my broom and cloak high up in a Quoxwood tree. I knew the best place to sneak in: the emergency exit door that I had used as an escape route the day I met the Wizard. The alarm didn't trigger if you opened it from the outside, and the guards wouldn't be expecting me to use the same exit every time.

I stumbled around until I found myself in the throne room of the Wizard. The room had been redecorated since my last visit, with even more jewels on the throne and freshly polished flooring. One thing that remained the same, however, was the giant cage. Twenty winged Monkeys were hopping around, flying, and trembling behind the metal bars. It was almost a prison, only the Monkeys were completely innocent. My heart broke seeing them shaking like that. It also brought me back to the day I had saved the Lion cub from history class with Fiyero…

Fiyero

. His name crashed through my mind like a wave on a rocky shore. He was engaged to Glinda now; I didn't understand why I hadn't let go of the one in a million possibility that I could be with him. He was taken. Glinda had been right that night after the Ozdust. _Fiyero and I are going to be married. _Her cheery voice washed gently over my mind, and I realized how much I had missed her, too.

And Nessa. Father's words echoed through my mind. _Take care of your sister._ Yet I had let her torture Boq. I had let her take everything away from the Munchkins just so she could hold him captive as her slave. I had let her get to the point that people started calling her the Wicked Witch of the East. I had failed to take care of Nessarose. Everything she had done was my fault as well as hers. Had Father really died of shame, like Nessa had said? Or was she just so broken from his death that she decided to take it out on me? Now the only thing I had left were the Animals. I was going to put all I had left into saving them from the Wizard's grasp.

Interrupting my thoughts, the Wizard stepped out from behind his throne, jumping back. He hadn't been expecting me to return after I defied him.

I walked away from him, blocking my vital organs with my broomstick and trying to decide whether I should use the Grimmerie on him.

"Elphaba! I don't want to harm you!" he assured. I couldn't trust him to say that after all he had done to the Animals. I couldn't trust him to say anything and have it be the whole truth.

"You have harmed me," I finally said, defiantly. He had indeed harmed me, left me heartbroken about the state of the Animals in Oz, took me away from caring for the people I loved by turning me into a Wicked Witch. He had created his own enemy.

"I know, and I regret doing so!"

I sneered. How did he regret what he did and still keep those Monkeys in a horrendible cage? It didn't make any sense. It would take much more than an apology to fix a mess he had created.

"Please, Elphaba!" he pleaded. "You've been so strong through all of this! Aren't you _tired_ of being so strong? Don't you ever want someone to take care of you?"

I thought for a moment. I had been fighting for the Animals for years, and it would have been nice to take the easy route for once. Nessarose had taken care of me long ago, in exchange for my taking care of her. Boq had given me four years of caring and friendship that I still refused to give up. And Fiyero. I felt that I really did have strong feelings for him, deep inside, but the love was locked up inside of me, and only Fiyero himself had the key. I did long for someone to be kind to me, to feel the warmth of a hug, to be simply Elphaba Thropp again, not the Wicked Witch of the West. But that would be the wrong thing to do. I would _always_ choose what is right over what's inside the walls of my comfort zone.

"Well," I finally mustered, "I would give anything to go back to that time when I thought you really _were _wonderful- the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. But that time has passed."

I remembered my first day at Shiz University, four and a half years ago, when Madame Morrible enrolled me in her Sorcery Seminar for something I had thought of a disaster. It had been an almost unachievable dream to meet the Wizard, to work alongside him making good. I thought that when I finally proved myself, we would be a team of hero and heroine, a team without a single flaw. I thought that would make me someone actually valued by the people of Oz, instead of just the green-skinned girl.

But that dream was gone now, far past my reach. The truth was staring me in the eyes, and I had realized that I wasn't meant to be with the Wizard. No amount of ambition could fix the problems the Wizard had caused for the Animals, or the problems I had caused trying to do what wasn't meant for me to do.

"Please, understand!" the Wizard begged. "You see, I never asked for this or planned it in advance. I was merely blown here by the winds of chance! I never saw myself as a Solomon or Socrates. I knew who I was- one of your dime-a-dozen Mediocrates. Then suddenly, I'm here, respected, _worshipped _even, just because the folks in Oz needed someone to believe in! Does it surprise you, I got hooked, and all too soon? What can I say, I got carried away, and not just by balloon!"

For a moment, I felt sorry for the Wizard, almost as much as I did the day I met him. He hadn't wanted to be the Wizard of Oz; he hadn't wanted to leave the world in which he used to belong. He could have had an ordinary life there; ordinary but full of virtue. Maybe he hadn't been meant to be a leader or to have power. Everything he was used to and had planned in life had been taken away from him with a single hot-air balloon ride. But he had lost that virtue on the journey to Oz, and instead replaced it with greed brought about by the power he had been given.

"Wonderful," he breathed. "They called me 'wonderful.' So I said, 'Wonderful, if you insist! I will be wonderful!' and they said, 'Wonderful!' Believe me, it's hard to resist, 'cause it feels wonderful! They think I'm _wonderful_! Hey, look who's wonderful? This corn-fed hick who said it might be keen to build a town of green and a wonderful road of yellow brick!"

"So you _lied _to them," I hissed, disappointed that this kind of man was _ruling Oz. _He only wanted power, so he submitted himself to wickedness.

"Only verbally," he said, with a shrug. I rolled my eyes. "And besides, they were the lies they _wanted _to hear! Where I come from, we believe all kinds of things that aren't true! We call it _history._"

I had to stifle a laugh. I had studied history all my life, and it had always been verified by multiple sources from both sides to get as much truth out of it as possible. The Wizard had a point, though. People have always taken sides with what they believed, regardless of whether it was truthful or not.

"A man's called a traitor, or liberator!" he explained. "A rich man's a thief or philanthropist. Is one a crusader or ruthless invader? It's all in which label is able to persist. There are precious few at ease with moral ambiguities, so we act as though they _don't exist_! They called me wonderful, so I _am _wonderful, in fact it's so much who I am it's part of my name!"

I sighed, wondering why he was so blinded.

"And with my help you can be the same!" The Wizard took my green hand in his, raising it above his head. "At long, long last receive your due, long overdue." His eyes hypnotically gazed deep into mine, and I noticed that his eyes, dark and empty, matched mine almost exactly. "Elphaba, the most celebrated are the rehabilitated. They'll be such a whoop-de-do, a celebration throughout Oz that's all to do with _you_! Wonderful! They'll call _you _wonderful!"

This was what I had always wanted, like a dream come true. Instead of the Wicked Witch of the West, I would be known as Grand Vizier to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. All of the Ozians would look up to me as they looked up to the Wizard himself, and everyone would love me. Nessa and Boq would forgive me. Everything would be as perfect as perfect can be. A life without prejudice, without my green skin seen as an unbreakable curse.

"It does sound wonderful," I admitted, still in a daze from shock.

"Trust, me it's fun, when you are wonderful!" He wrapped his arms around mine in a comforting motion.

"I could be wonderful!" I smiled, feeling almost at home in the Wizard's arms.

"Wonderful, wonderful! One, two, three…!"

I snapped out of my mental fog. I was getting coaxed into being on the Wizard's side, which I could _never_ do, even if it meant fame, power, and even acceptance, something I had never felt before in my life. I would rather be hated for making good than loved for doing evil.

"I'll except your proposition…" I began.

The Wizard sighed, relieved.

"…_on one condition._ You set those Monkeys free!"

The Wizard walked over to the side of the cage, where a lever to open it was located.

"Done!" he said, accepting my agreement. With one hand, he pulled the long, tight lever, and the bars of the cage began to open. Monkeys flooded the room, their wings flapping madly with the idea of freedom. They bounced around everywhere, climbing all over the throne, and running out the door to the room, free to leave captivity and go wherever they wanted. "Go!" I shouted, excited. "Fly! Fly! You're _free_!"

I was stunned when one of the Monkeys dropped a large bundle in a heap on the ground.

A goat crawled out of the bundle, a weak _baa _escaping from his throat. It was shaking with fear and pain, its hair a tangled mess. I realized with sadness that it was Dr. Dillamond, my former history professor.

"No," I said, shaking my head in disbelief. "It can't be!" I had already lost Boq, and I had lost Nessarose's trust. I had lost my reputation. Now, despite my efforts to save him, Dr. Dillamond was gone as well, taken from me like candy from a baby.

"Dr. Dillamond," I asked the goat, "are you alright?" I knew he wasn't alright from the look in his eyes. His only answer was another feeble _baa_.

"It's alright, Dr. Dillamond!" I reassured, tears in my eyes. I stroked his matted fur, trying the best I could to comfort him. "Don't be afraid. It's me, Elphaba! Don't you remember me?"

There was no response. Dr. Dillamond had become an ordinary, non-speaking goat.

Tears slid down my face, and I couldn't get myself to calm down. The Wizard had gone way too far.

I stood up, more angry than I had ever been in my life. "You and I have nothing in common, and we never will!" I said, my voice harsh and controlling. "And I will fight you 'til the day I die!"

"Guards!" the Wizard yelled. "_Guards_!"

Moments later, several guards had entered the room, lead by the Captain of the Guard himself. "Halt!" someone shouted, and the guards stopped in their tracks.

The Captain stepped forward, green-and-gold uniform more decorated than any of the others'. "Are you alright, your Ozness?" he asked, wondering why he had been called to the Throne Room.

Then I looked up at the Captain's face. He had brown hair, which was well combed and clean. He was about six feet tall, and he stood powerfully in a way that radiated bravery. Most of all, though, I noticed his eyes. They were a beautiful amber brown. The same eyes that had stared into mine that day we set the Lion cub free. I would've recognized them anywhere. _Fiyero was the Captain of the Guard._

"Fiyero!" I called out, not expecting him to be here, with this high a position in the Gale Force.

Fiyero turned to face my direction. "I…I don't believe it…"

"Oh, Fiyero! Thank God! I thought you were…"

"Silence, _witch_!" he shouted coldly. I stopped talking. What had happened to Fiyero in the past few years?

"There's a goat on the lam, sir…" one of the other guards said.

"Never mind all that!" Fiyero responded. "Fetch me some water."

"_Water_, sir?" the guard asked, skeptical.

"You heard me!" Fiyero ordered. "As much as you can carry."

What in Oz would Fiyero be doing with a giant bucket of water? I was just as confused.

As soon as the other guards left, I attempted to speak to him again. "Fiyero…:

"I said _silence_!" Fiyero shouted. He walked up to the Wizard, pointing a gun toward him.

"_Don't make a sound_, your Ozness," he threatened, "unless you want all your guests to know the truth about the _WonderfulWizard_ of Oz!" Then he turned back toward me. "Elphaba, I'll find Dr. Dillamond later. Now get out of here!"

I breathed a sigh of relief. He was still on my side.

"Fiyero," I breathed, "you frightened me. I thought…" I took a deep breath, "I thought you might have changed." He wasn't the brainless young prince without a care in the world anymore. I could sense that he had something more to him after all these years. "I _have_ changed," he breathed.

Then, Glinda ran out. "What's going on?" she asked, concerned. Then, she laid eyes on me. "Elphie?" She wrapped her arms around me in a soothing hug. "Oh, thank Oz you're alive! Only…you shouldn't have come. If anyone discoverates you…"

Fiyero cut her off. "Glinda, you'd better go."

"Fiyero," she gasped, "what are you…"

"Please." Everyone fell silent with Fiyero's words. "Just go back to the ball."

"Your Ozness," Glinda looked toward the Wizard, "he means no disrespectation! Please understand! You see, we all went to school together…"

"Elphaba," Fiyero said, grasping my hand as tightly as he could. My cheeks flushed at his touch.

"Fiyero!" Glinda shouted, realizing what he was doing. "Have you misplaced your mind?! What are you _doing_?"

"I'm going with _her_!" he shouted, wrapping his arm around my waist.

"What!?" Glinda gasped. "What are you saying?"

I was stunned, but now I understood. The water had been a distraction for him to leave with me before the guards came back. I felt my heart begin to pound with joy, but I was also in complete disbelief. Fiyero Tiggular, Prince of the Vinkus, Captain of the Guard, had chosen _me, _of all people, over _Glinda the Good. _Was he going insane? But I loved him. We both needed each other. I needed him for comfort, and I had to protect him. I couldn't even explain how exhilarated I felt.

"You mean all this time…the two of you…" Glinda gasped again, before freaking out. "…behind my back!?"

"No, Glinda!" I interrupted, extremely offended by Glinda's accusation. "It wasn't like that!"

"Actually, it was," said Fiyero, looking back at me, "but it wasn't." He grabbed my hand. "Elphaba! Let's go. _Let's go_!"

We both ran as fast as we could, out of the Emerald Palace and into the spring air outside, our hands interlocked as if they were glued together. The wind rushed through my long hair, the gusts rough against the sensitive skin of my face. _I was actually with Fiyero. _And no matter what faced us, I was never going to let go. Ever.


	10. Crossing the Borderline

**AN: Finally, here's As Long As You're Mine!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Wicked.**

* * *

I hastily gathered my belongings from their hiding place, and then we ran together to a Quoxwood grove, much farther away, where the Emerald City faded away into the edge of the Vinkus. We settled down under the tall branches, the cold spring breezes swirling around me as if there was magic in the air. Fiyero's touch soothed me, making me forget the sorrows of my life.

The watercolor sky of an evening sunset had faded away, replaced by the mystical artwork of the night. I felt safe in Fiyero's arms, safer than I had felt since the day I defied the Wizard. What I had felt the day of the Lion cub incident was nothing compared to the exhilaration that swept through my nerves at the mere realization that Fiyero returned my feelings for him. I felt like I had found my missing half.

"Kiss me too fiercely," I pleaded, "hold me too tight! I need help believing you're with me tonight!" I tightened my grip on his shoulders until it became a hug. It was so surreal, yet I understood reality more than I ever had before. Impossible things really could happen-they were unfolding right before my eyes.

"My wildest dreamings could not foresee lying beside you with you _wanting _me!" Happy tears welled up in my chocolate eyes as I saw how much Fiyero cared, understood, and _loved_. "And just for this moment, as long as you're mine, I've lost all resistance, and crossed some borderline. And if it turns out it's over too fast, I'll make every last moment last! _As long as you're mine_!"

I gazed deeply into Fiyero's amber irises, which were almost glowing with pure happiness. His raspy breathing evened itself out as we stared into each other's eyes, before he pressed his lips to mine. My heart beat quickly, but each beat was for Fiyero. _My first kiss. _Our eyes interlocked as if pulled together by a magnetic force, we felt we could never separate. At that very moment, every other moment in the world disappeared, and my love for Fiyero was all that existed.

"Maybe I'm brainless," Fiyero pronounced, stroking my long hair, "maybe I'm wise. But _you've _got me seeing through different eyes! Somehow I've fallen under your spell, and somehow I'm feeling it's _up _that I fell!" Fiyero brushed his lightly tanned hands against my green-skinned arms in soothing motions,

"Every moment," we said, our voices blending into one, "as long as you're mine, I'll wake up my body, and make up for lost time!"

"Say there's no future," breathed Fiyero, "for us as a pair…"

"And though I may know I don't care! Just for this moment, as long as you're mine!" Our voices smoothed back out, rounded and perfect in the crisp night air. "Come be how you want to, and see how bright we shine! Borrow the moonlight, until it is through, and know I'll be here holding _you_! As long as you're mine!"

Our fingers interlaced, tangled like a twisted fishing net, Fiyero leaned in toward me, and we prepared to kiss once again.

Instead, I pulled back, struggling to comprehend the amazing sensation. _He loved me back. _He chose me, the green girl, the artichoke, the girl who he saw as an emerald beauty, over Glinda the Good. He had everything: royal blood, high military status, the support of all of Oz. And he had given it up-all to be with me, the Wicked Witch…of the West.

This is where I belonged: in the Vinkus, with Fiyero. I felt more at home here than I ever would in Munchkinland. Nothing could ever take that away from me.

"What is it?" Fiyero asked, concerned.

"It's just, for the first time, I feel…" I sighed heavily, feeling a huge weight drop from my shoulders. "…_Wicked._"

Our arms wrapped around one another's, and our lips came together for one more kiss; a kiss that marked the beginning of our lives together.

* * *

"I wish I could be beautiful," I told him, my chocolate brown eyes staring at the moon, floating effortlessly above my head, "for you." Tears stung my eyes. I wanted Fiyero to be happy, and I hoped I wasn't ruining his perfect dreams, his perfect life.

He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut in. "No! Don't tell me that I _am_! Don't _lie_!"

Fiyero looked straight into my deep, dark eyes with pure passion, and said the smartest thing I had ever heard him say. "It's not lying. It's thinking of things the other way."

He placed his slightly tanned hand on my smooth cheek, and I remembered the night we had saved the Lion cub together, a night that seemed forever ago. At the same time, I remembered the panic in Fiyero's eyes as I touched him like I was reliving the moment. Things had changed. Fiyero actually loved me now, able to see past my verdigris.

I smiled, happy tears flowing down my cheeks.

A cold wind blew through the trees, shaking the newly budded branches, and a strange sensation swept through my body, as if something other than blood had replaced the red liquid in my veins. It made me think of Boq, when I turned him into a tin man, and the way Nessa had reacted. _Nessa. _Something was terribly wrong. _Nessa. _My heart began to pound like mad, and I suddenly felt lightheaded, spots swirling in my previously clear vision. _Nessa._

A high-pitched noise echoed through the air. "Do you hear that? It sounds like somebody in pain!" _Nessa. Nessa._

"It's just the wind," Fiyero assured, his warm hands warming my cold ones.

"My sister is in danger!" Instinct was stealing my senses, my composure.

"How do you know?"

"I don't know, I just do!" My hands began to tremble as I saw something that led me to believe that I was losing my mind.

"Elphaba! What's wrong?" Fiyero asked.

There was a house, made of flimsy wood planks and whitewashed in places, swirling through the sky in a thick, funnel-shaped cloud of smoky gray. A tornado!

And a _house _flying through the _sky_. I had to be hallucinating. Tornadoes were common enough in Oz, but I had never seen any intact buildings defy gravity.

"_This_! Don't you see it?" I asked, pointing up at the night sky, dotted with stars like the tiny irregularities in a perfect solid plane-imperfections that made the darkness beautiful.

"What?" Fiyero asked, confused. I turned around and couldn't see the cyclone or the house anymore. Maybe I really _was _losing my sanity, becoming truly wicked, like my sister…_No. _Despite all that she had done, Nessarose could never be wicked. I remembered when she was nothing but the innocent girl in the chair, on the first day at Shiz with me. Even if she was wicked, I still saw the tiny part of her that wasn't meaning any harm, even doing good.

The thick funnel cloud returned, the house still inside. "There!" I shouted. "It doesn't make any sense, but…It's a house, flying through the sky!"

"Elphaba…" Fiyero turned suddenly, his mouth dropping open. He pinched himself hard in case it was just a nightmare.

"I have to get to Nessa!" I couldn't let anything bad happen to my younger sister. Sure, everyone knew her as the Wicked Witch of the East now, but she was still my sister, the only member of my family who had ever been nice to me after my mother's death. I stood up and wrapped my cloak around my trembling shoulders, broom in hand.

"Elphaba, wait! I'll come with you!"

"No!" I protested. Fiyero was likely wanted by his own Gale Force now, and I couldn't risk him being caught.

"Listen!" he began. "My family has a castle in Kiamo Ko. No one is ever there except the sentries who watch over it. We've never lived there."

"Then where do you live?" I asked.

"In the other castle," he replied arrogantly. I rolled my eyes.

"It's the perfect hiding place," he continued. "Tunnels, secret passageways…You'll be safe there."  
"We will see each other again," I swallowed hard, "Won't we?"

"Elphaba, we are going to be together-_always_," he assured. "You can see houses flying from the sky…can't you see that?"

He was right. If houses could fly through the sky, anything was possible.

I boarded my broomstick and flew off into the distance, towards Munchkinland, my cloak swirling around me in the harsh wind of the twister. _Anything was possible._


	11. The Munchkinland Gardens

**AN: Okay, I know everyone is looking forward to No Good Deed, but I decided to break up the catfight scene and NGD into separate chapters because I need to spend some more time editing. Don't worry, No Good Deed will be the next chapter. But for now, here's the catfight scene.**

**This chapter is dedicated to Eriphabottackson for reviewing every chapter.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Wicked; otherwise, why would it be called ****_Fan_****fiction?**

* * *

Despite how quickly I urged my broomstick to travel, and how urgently I needed to arrive, I didn't land in Munchkinland until mid-afternoon the next day.

When I did arrive at the Governor's mansion, a strange sight greeted me. The house I had seen flying through the sky the night before laid, crushed, on the ground, bits of plywood and flakes of paint scattered around in the flower bushes. This was the place where Nessa wandered at night and stargazed with fascination: the Munchkinland Gardens.

Glinda the Good was waving her hand excitedly toward a farm girl. The girl's dark brown hair was tied in two braids, and she wore a blue-and-white checkered frock. She held a hand-woven straw basket in one hand, and as she walked, a chocolate-colored terrier poked his head out, barking happily at trees and small Animals. On the girl's feet was a pair of ruby-colored ballet flats, shimmering in the soft sunlight. _Nessa's shoes. _The shoes weren't supposed to come off Nessarose's feet during her lifetime.

_Her lifetime._

I had been too late. The flying house had crushed the life out of my younger sister. Nessarose Thropp was dead.

Glinda set down the long, silver wand she was holding. She knelt down on the ground next to the house. "Oh, Nessa," she whispered, on the verge of tears.

Pain took over any positive emotion I still had. "What a touching display of grief!" I shouted, hoping she understood how angry I was.

Glinda jumped back, eyes wide with surprise.

"I wanted something to remember her by, and all that was left were those shoes, and now that wretched little farm girl has walked off with them! So I would appreciate some time _alone _to say goodbye to my sister."

I still hoped that this was all just a bad dream, that I would wake up and my sister would be alive and well again. Deep down in my heart, though, I knew it was real. I refused to believe it, but I knew it really had happened.

Nessa had been the only person to comfort me when I was afraid, to cheer me up when I was depressed, and to talk to me when I needed support. Now she was gone forever, and Glinda hadn't seemed to have paid the greatest respects to my sister.

I dropped everything and lowered to my knees next to the damaged house. "Nessa," I cried, "please, please, _please _forgive me!?" Tears slid down my cheeks. _Nessa, my_ _Nessa, I would give anything for you to be with me still! It doesn't matter if you were the Wicked Witch of the East, I still loved you the same! You mattered to me, Nessa. You were the only person who could cheer me up sometimes or encourage me to never give up. And I'm sorry for turning Boq into a tin man! Really, I am! You were so young, and you never got to live your life! I'm sorry…This is all my fault!_

"Elphie, you mustn't blame yourself!" Glinda laid a hand on my shoulders, responding as if she could read my mind. I jerked away, every horrendible thing that had happened swirling around in my mind like the tornado…_No, _I told myself. _Don't think about the tornado. _I couldn't bear to think about anything the reminded me of Nessa. Thoughts of wheelchairs, tornadoes, houses, even the Munchkinland Gardens themselves now made my feel sick to my stomach.

"It's dreadful, it is, to have a house fall on you, but accidents will happen." Glinda tried to sympathize, but just couldn't do it correctly.

"You call this an _accident_?!" I jeered, angered by her ignorance. Since when did tornadoes drop countryside houses on just any random person by _accident_?

"Yes…well, maybe not an accident," corrected Glinda, realizing she had come across as offensive.

"Then what do you call it?" I asked.

"Well…" Glinda thought for a moment, trying to come up with a reasonable response. "A _regime change_, caused by a bizarre and unexpected twister of fate."

"You think cyclones just appear out of the blue?" I shouted, once again upset beyond words. This was my _sister_ we were talking about, and I wasn't going to allow Glinda to make light of the situation.

"I don't know," Glinda said, pausing. "I never really…"

Now it was my turn to be mean. "No, _of course _you never! You're too busy telling everyone how _wonderful _everything is!"

"I'm a public figure now," Glinda replied, tension in her voice. "People expect me to…"

"Lie?" I cut in.

Glinda shot me a dirty look. "Be encouraging!"

I picked up my broomstick, feeling the grain of the wood under my sensitive fingertips. I gritted my teeth, trying not to totally lash out at the only friend I had left. She didn't understand what it felt like to lose a beloved sister. She _never_ would. But I still treasured our friendship, and I didn't want to sever those ties.

"And what exactly have _you _been doing lately," she asked, gesturing to my broom, "besides flying around on _that _filthy old thing?"

"Well," I replied, matter-of-factly, "we can't _all_ come and go by _bubble_!"

Glinda raised an eyebrow.

"Whose invention was _that_?" I pried. "The Wizard's? Of course, even if it wasn't, I'm sure he'd still take credit for it."

"Yes, well, a lot of us are taking things that don't belong to us, aren't we?" Glinda thrust back at me.

I sighed angrily. "Now _wait_ just a clock-tick!" I closed in on Glinda, holding my broomstick in front of me. "I know it may be difficult for that blissful, blonde brain of yours to comprehend that someone like _him _would actually _choose _someone like me. But it happened…it's _real._" I pointed at the elaborately decorated stick in Glinda's hand. "And you can wave that ridiculous wand all you want, you can't change it! He _never_ belonged to you, he _doesn't_ love you, and he _never did_! _He loves me_!"

Glinda, very suddenly, raised her left hand and smacked me hard on the cheek. The sting spread through my face, head, and neck, leaving a tingling feeling. I began to laugh uncontrollably. How dare Glinda think that one slap could turn me into a complete coward! _Friends fight_, I told myself, but I was beginning to grow worried that I would lose my grasp on our friendship.

"Feel better now?" I asked her bitterly.

"Yes, I do!" she replied with an innocently guilty smile.

I mustered all of the strength I could and slapped Glinda's cheek…hard. "Good, so do I!"

Glinda turned around and dropped her wand. We grabbed each other by the arms and began to fight. I threw my hat at her, pummeled her with my broom, did everything I could to defend myself. But the fight lasted only briefly, because three Gale Force guards came around the corner with as much stealth as air and seized me. "Halt, in the name of the Wizard!" they shouted.

_Great, _I thought to myself as the guards dug their nails into my skin. _How dare they use my sister's death as a trap to capture me!_ It had all been to capture me. And if not for those psychopaths, my sister would still be here. I was glad Fiyero had left this group of nutcases.

One of the guards addressed Glinda. "Sorry it took so long to get here, Miss."

Anger coursed through my bloodstream with every heartbeat. Glinda had been involved in this, involved in planning my sister's death. "I can't believe you would sink so low! To use my sister's _death_ as a trap to capture me?!" I couldn't decide if I could trust Glinda any longer. Was she really on my side, as she claimed to be?

"I never meant for this to happen!" Glinda cried, and I could tell it was a genuine apology. But I wasn't in the mood for apologies. She had helped kill my sister, and I wasn't ready to forgive her yet.

I struggled, thrashing around and kicking the guards in the shins, but to no avail. Their grip was stronger than diamonds.

"Elphie!" Glinda shrieked in distress as the guards began to pull me away. My breathing became erratic with fear. What were they going to do to me? And worse: If Glinda tried to take a stand, what would they do to _her_? Despite my anger at my friend, I still didn't want to let go of our friendship-at least I didn't want to let it go like this.

I squeezed my eyes shut as tightly as I could, until spots began to dance in my vision. _Oz, help me!_ I thought. I didn't want to break down in front of Glinda. _My best friend_. Even through all of my anger, she was still my best friend. She had always shown that she cared about me more than anything in all of Oz, but I couldn't let her sacrifice herself for a mere green girl.

Before I knew it, the guards stopped dragging me further away, as if frozen in time. I opened my eyes, and saw the last person I expected to see: Fiyero.

He had dropped down from a nearby Quoxwood tree on a thick rope. All thoughts of Glinda disappeared from my mind upon seeing his face. What was he doing? Trying to get himself arrested? I couldn't let him get hurt. I just couldn't!

Before I could stop him, he pointed a gun at one of the guards' chests.

"Let the green girl go!" he shouted. I was both relieved that he had come to my rescue and frightened as to what punishment he would receive for defending me. "I _said _let her go! Or explain to all Oz how the Wizard's guards watched," he turned the gun to point directly at Glinda's heart, "while Glinda the Good was slain!"

"Fiyero!" Glinda gasped. I reached toward Glinda, as if that would help me to save her. The guards holding me released their grip, and I fell to the ground with enough force that it knocked the wind out of me. Fiyero held the gun to the guards, and then back to Glinda, in case they were to seize me again.

"Elphaba, go!" Fiyero urged.

"No!" I insisted. "Not without you."

"Hush, now!" he said, motioning me away. "Go!"

"Do it!" Glinda shouted.

As much as I hated leaving Fiyero, I knew I had to if there was any chance for either of us to live.

It took me a moment to stand back up after being knocked onto the ground.

It took me even longer for the events of the past few seconds to make sense.

I watched through some nearby bushes as a nightmare unfolded before my eyes.

Fiyero dropped his gun, his only way to save himself, his only lifeline, which landed with a loud _thump_ on the hard ground. I couldn't believe my eyes. He had surrendered. For me. I couldn't let him do this…I couldn't!

"Seize him!" one of the guards shouted. I began to feel sick with fear.

After the events that had happened, I would never again think of the Munchkinland Gardens in the same way.

I stood there in shock, still struggling to comprehend what was going on. Fiyero was going to leave us, leave this world, for me. It was too much to handle.

"Take him up to that field there! Put him up on those poles until he tells us where the witch went!"

Fiyero held his arms directly outward in surrender. The guards seized him, wrapping his arms and legs around a wooden pole. His amber eyes were filled with agony as they carried him away. I couldn't watch anymore.

"_Fiyerooooooooooooo_!" I shouted, running as fast as I could.

All I could have done for my sister, for my friend, for the Animals, and for my best friend would never have been enough.

Now, I only hoped that I had enough in me to save Fiyero.


	12. One More Disaster

**AN: Despite how much I added to it, this chapter still isn't as good as I wanted it to be. Especially since it's one of the key moments in this story.**

**So I hope this isn't totally messed up.**

**DISCLAIMER: If I owned Wicked, I wouldn't be writing ****_Fan_****fiction.**

* * *

I was used to running; it was practically all I had done for the past four years. But I had never run with this much purpose before. This time, I wasn't running to help myself escape, but to get to somewhere safe so I could try to save Fiyero.

By now, the sun was setting in the western sky. The hours I had spent in Munchkinland had gone by much more quickly than I had expected; it seemed like only minutes ago, I still had a sister. A downpour of rain drenched me, making things seem even more hopeless than they already were.

I flipped through the weathered pages of the Grimmerie, settling on a spell that I was completely unfamiliar with. I couldn't make out what it translated to, but instinct told me I had to try it. It was a long shot, but it was my only chance to save Fiyero. But it brought back terrible memories of Nessa and Boq.

"_Eleka nahmen nahmen atum atum eleka nahmen_," I began to chant, the words strange on my tongue. _"Eleka nahmen nahmen atum atum eleka nahmen."_

There was a blank space between the words of the spell. Not sure what it was for, I guessed that I was supposed to add what I wanted it to do. I didn't know how to speak the language the Grimmerie was written in, so I used the official Ozian language, hoping it wouldn't ruin the spell.

"Let his flesh not be torn, let his blood leave no stain. Though they beat him, let him feel no pain! Let his bones never break, and however they try to destroy him, let him never die, let him NEVER DIE!"

Sucking in a jagged breath of cold evening air, I stumbled over the Lost Language of Spells.

"Eleka nahmen nahmen atum atum eleka nahmen. Eleka nahmen atum atum eleka! Eleka…!"

The rest of the spell was impossible to read, the ink blurred by rain and my own tears. I could only hope that that was the end of the spell and that I hadn't left it unfinished.

I slammed the Grimmerie shut and threw it to the ground. I would never be powerful enough to do anything right. Magic, contrary to what I had originally believed, was fallible. Even a young witch like me, one trained by the most powerful, albeit evil, sorceress in Oz, couldn't do everything. I could read the Grimmerie naturally, but the magic of those syllables couldn't fix everything. Using every element of sorcery combined, there were still some things that could not change.

And it had all started with that book. The book Morrible had asked me to read from for the Wizard, which had tortured the Monkeys by causing them to sprout wings…the book I had used to enchant my broomstick so I could fly off to work for a cause I believed in…the book I had used to enchant Nessa's shoes to give her the ability to walk…the same book Nessarose had used under the influence of her impulsive nerves and fiery temper to try and make Boq fall in love with her. The Grimmerie had caused more harm than good. So what was wrong with me, to think that it could save anyone in Oz, to continue using its magic to try to help others? I knew it was going to hurt them, so why didn't I stop myself?

"Oh, what good is this chanting? I don't even know what I'm _reading_! I don't even know what trick I ought to try!" My emotions were gushing out without my thinking. "Fiyero, where are you? Already dead or bleeding? One more disaster I can add to my generous supply?!"

I fell to my knees, freezing cold tears dripping down my face and neck, wetting the neckline of my black, lacey dress. I wiped them away with the edge of my cloak, shivering in the darkness. "No good deed goes unpunished. No act of charity goes unresented. No good deed goes unpunished, that's my new creed! My road of good intentions led where such roads always lead! _No good deed goes unpunished!_

Images flashed through my mind of my Shiz days, the days when I was blinded to the difference between good and evil. Back then, I could trust Madame Morrible, and I saw the Wizard as the most wonderful man in Oz, deserving of his title. Those were the days when Glinda, still Galinda Upland of the Upper Uplands, was cheerful and bubbly, not the unsure, emotional young woman I now knew. That was when I had allowed Nessa to fall in love with Boq, even though I knew he adored Galinda, without thinking of the consequences.

I remembered the time when we were only children, when Boq and I had races in the fields behind the Munchkinland Gardens, me pushing Nessa in her wheelchair…I drew in a sharp and painful breath at the thought of what my once vibrant sister had become before her untimely death.

"Nessa."

When I stayed after class to help Dr. Dillamond, who made learning History fun with his terrible jokes…

"Dr. Dillamond."

Last night, when Fiyero told me he really did love me…

"Fiyero," I breathed. Nessarose hadn't been the only one to lose sight of who she was. If not for the for what _I _had become, the only man who would ever love someone like me would still be alive.

My hands shook as they covered my face. "FIYEROOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Heartache filled me with unbearable pain, and any last remnant of happiness had left my mind. I would have given anything to feel Nessa's gentle touch comforting me, for Dr. Dillamond to teach me history again, for Fiyero to kiss me, to sit with me, to tell me he loved me. Now he was gone forever, and I couldn't live without him by my side. As the sun slipped under the horizon, blanketing me in darkness, I finally broke.

"One question haunts and hurts, too much, too much to mention!" I used nearly all of my strength to stand back up, wishing I could go back to the days before I made the fateful trip to the Emerald City with Glinda. But no amount of wishing could change the choices I had made. "Was I _really _seeking good, or just seeking attention? Is that all good deeds are when looked at with an ice-cold eye? If that's all good deeds are, maybe that's the reason why!"

All I had ever done was ruin things. My father had been right: I _was _a disgrace to my family, to all of Oz. Maybe I had a secret desire to do something right for once, and if I didn't have that desire, I would be a coldhearted girl with nothing left inside of her but evil.

"No good deed goes unpunished! All helpful urges should be _circumvented_! No good deed goes unpunished! Sure, I meant well, but look at what well-meant _did_!" I fell back down to my knees, shaking so hard I felt ill.

"Alright, enough, so be it!" I shouted to the world around me. The words echoed over the cliff where I was standing. "So be it, then! _Let all Oz be agreed: I'm _wicked _through and through! _Since I cannot succeed, Fiyero, saving you, I promise no good deed will I attempt to do again! _Ever _again! _No good deed _will I do _again!_"

I was truly wicked. The Wicked Witch of the West. I had been all along.

And it took Fiyero's death to make me realize that.

* * *

**AN: Because this chapter was so angsty and depressing, I promise that the next one will be at least a little bit happier (next is March of the Witch Hunters, For Good, and possibly even the melting).**


	13. Forever Changed

**AN: This is kind of a long chapter...(maybe). You know how I said last chapter that it was going to be less depressing? Well, it kind of is...but kind of isn't. (It's March of the Witch Hunters all the way through the melting and the finale.)**

**And I did the letter from Fiyero and the melting scene a little bit differently than I've seen it before, so I hope you find it okay.**

**This is the last chapter of this story, so enjoy! My next multi-chapter story will take a LONG time to write and is very complicated (I'm planning on it being a Fiyeraba fic about Fiyero being under a spell and he and Elphaba have to find the Grimmerie to undo it-it's ****_very _****complicated and I haven't written much yet, so I can't say any more than that) so I might not post one of those for a long time, but I WILL write oneshots in between.**

* * *

The rain eventually dissipated, becoming nothing but a fine mist drifting through the air. I was flying on my broomstick toward the Vinkus, feeling I had nowhere left to go besides the castle Fiyero had offered me.

As I flew towards the Vinkus, towards Kiamo Ko, I caught a glimpse of a disturbing sight, one I wished I had never laid eyes on.

More than one hundred guards, men wielding large weapons, and women cheering now occupied a long stretch of the Yellow Brick Road.

"Wickedness must be punished! Evil effectively eliminated! Wickedness must be punished! Kill the Witch!" they shouted, urging the guards and men to march through Oz. Among them, I saw a Scarecrow and the farm girl who had stolen Nessa's shoes.

In front, underneath Morrible and Glinda's perch, was a man made entirely out of tin. There was only one Tin Man I knew of in Oz, and I had been the reason he…_Boq_…had become this_. _He stood as tall as he could for being a Munchkin, his metal joints creaking as he raised an axe valiantly into the air.

"And this is _more_ than just a service to the Wizard!" he shouted, voice crazed and maniacal. "I have a personal score to settle with Elph…" he paused for a moment, correcting himself. "with _the Witch_!" he shouted, the Ozians cheering below him. "It's due to her I'm made of tin, her spell made this occur, so for once I'm glad I'm heartless, I'll be heartless killing _her_!"

I gasped, almost falling off of my broomstick. What I had meant to save Boq's life had instead ruined it, enough that he wanted to kill me. No trace remained of my childhood friend inside that tin shell. The old Boq was gone; I finally had to accept it.

"And I'm not the only one," he added, gesturing to a regal, golden-haired Lion. The Lion cowered next to Boq's feet, growling, when he reached for his mane. "Oh, come on, you!" he shouted, urging it to stand up, but to no avail. "Come out and tell them what she did to you in class that day. How you were just a cub, and she _cubnapped_ you!"

I tightened my grip on the broom, trying to steady it under my trembling hands. No. It couldn't be…I remembered that day as clearly as if it were yesterday. When Fiyero and I had saved the Lion cub and released it into the woods. The day love swept me off my feet for the first time. Had I really hurt him? I was too stunned to think clearly.

It wasn't until then that I noticed Glinda, standing on the balcony of a nearby building, a distressed look on her face. "No, no!" she cut in. "That's not the way it happened!" She gestured to Madame Morrible, who was standing on her right, smiling maliciously. "Madame, you've _got_ to stop this! It's gone _too far_!"

"Oh, I think Elphaba can take care of herself," Morrible, said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Glinda looked at the Witch Hunters, looking unsettled. "Madame, something's been troubling me…about Nessarose and the cyclone."

At the mention of Nessa's name, a tear slipped down my cheek. Glinda had been somehow involved in that, but I didn't understand how.

"Oh, yes…" Morrible smirked, looking up at the night sky. "Well, I guess it was just her time…"

"Was it?" Glinda asked, gazing off into the distance. Then, she gasped and she covered her mouth with a manicured hand, turning to face Morrible. "Or did you…?!"

Suddenly, it all came back to me. I remembered that day, the day I got the letter from the Wizard, when I was standing in the rain. With a snap of the HeadShizstress's fingers, there was not a cloud in the sky. _Did I ever mention, weather is my specialty_…

I gasped. It had been Morrible, not Glinda, who had killed Nessarose. The tornado had been her weather magic at work. _Madame Morrible _killed my sister.

"Now you listen to me, _Missy_," Morrible hissed. Glinda ducked into a corner of the balcony, eyes wide, trying to avoid the evil witch's grip. "You may have fooled the rest of Oz with this 'aren't I good' routine, but you know better!" She moved closer to Glinda, who pressed herself harder against the wall. "You've wanted this from the beginning, and now _you're getting what you wanted_!"

Glinda nodded shakily.

"So, just smile, and wave," Morrible closed in on Glinda, pulling her upright by the top of her dress and bringing their faces into close proximity, "and _shut up_!"

"Wickedness must be punished!" the Witch Hunters cheered, waving pitchforks in the air as they followed Boq down the Yellow Brick Road. "Brave Witch Hunters I would join you if I could, because wickedness must be punished, punished, punished, for good!"

Bracing myself for the worst, I came to a stunning realization at that moment: maybe I couldn't do any more for Boq, or Nessa, or Fiyero.

In order to save the rest of Oz, as much as I didn't want to think about it, I needed to save myself.

* * *

"Give me the shoes!"

Dorothy, the farm girl who had taken Nessa's ruby slippers, only trembled.

"Oh, for Oz sake, _stop _crying! I can't listen to it anymore!" I stepped threateningly close to Dorothy. "Oh, you want to see your Aunt Em and Uncle What's-his-Name again? _Then get those shoes off your feet!_"

I slammed the door, leaving Dorothy crying inside. I had never wanted to hurt young Dorothy or her little terrier, who seemed to like everybody, but I missed Nessa more than anything right then. I wanted something to comfort me, to give me the comforts that Nessarose herself had given me. But the shoes were apparently Dorothy's now, even though they were rightfully mine.

"Little brat," I muttered under my breath. "Who takes a dead woman's shoes? Must've been raised in a barn."

I walked over to Chistery the Monkey, who was sitting on the edge of the staircase eyes big and sad. I stroked his fur, trying to find comfort in the only one I had. "Oh, Chistery, there you are! Where are the others?"

Chistery shrugged, and he looked like he was about to cry. I couldn't handle seeing the innocent little Monkey so unhappy. My own eyes grew teary.

"Chistery, if you don't at least _try _to continue speaking, you will never…" I didn't get a chance to finish, because just then, Glinda the Good walked in.

"Go away!" I shouted. I had to protect her. If anyone found the Good Witch here, she would face severe punishment. I couldn't allow her to stay, for the sake of her own safety.

Glinda didn't listen. "They're coming for you," she warned in a grave tone.

I sighed. I knew about the Witch Hunt, but I didn't know what I would do when Boq showed up at my door and shoved his axe under my throat. "Go away."

"Let the little girl go!" Glinda screamed, "and that poor little dog Dodo! I know you don't want to hear this, but someone has to say it: _You are out of control_!"

I sighed again, rolling my eyes.

"I mean, come on!" she continued. "They're just shoes, let it go! Elphaba, you _can't_ go on like this!"

"I can do whatever I want!" I yelled back, though I didn't believe it myself. But they weren't just shoes, at least not to me. "I'm the Wicked Witch of the West!"

I walked over to the staircase, where Chistery sat. Another Monkey came out, handing me a black envelope.

"At last! What took you so long?" I opened the envelope to find a letter written in sharp, neat handwriting. Although my name was on the envelope, the letter itself was addressed to Glinda.

_Dear Miss Glinda Upland,_

_I regret to inform you of the unfortunate passing of Fiyero Tiggular._

I didn't read any further than that; it was too painful. I looked up from the letter, then back at it, before my eyes settled on the Monkey who had given me this letter. "Why are you bothering me with this?" I asked him. I already knew that Fiyero was long dead.

Then, I noticed the a message scrawled at the bottom. My eyes went wide with disbelief.

_Elphaba, _it read, _your spell worked. I am alive, but not in the way you might think. I am on my way to Kiamo Ko; I know that's where you are. The Witch Hunters are coming to kill you. You know the rumor Morrible started about how water can melt you? I know it's not true, but Kiamo Ko has many trapdoors and secret passages. Fake your death with some water, go through one of the trapdoors, and I'll meet you there. We'll run away together. But you're going to have to trust me. And I assure you, you have seen my face for the last time._

I resisted the urge to smile. He was alive! My heart filled with joy. He really was alive! But I had to pretend he wasn't; Glinda couldn't find out about this! And what had he meant by _you've seen my face for the last time_?

"What is it?" Glinda asked. Her face contorted with worry. "It's _Fiyero, _isn't it."

I didn't know what to tell Glinda. "We've seen his face for the last time," I said, forcing tears to well up in my eyes. Fiyero had been the only man to ever love me, and the only man who ever would. I thought I had lost all that, and I was grateful that I could run away to safety with him, despite my sadness at having to leave Glinda behind. But I still had to pretend he _had _died.

I grabbed a bucket of cold, soapy water and set it out in the center of the room, near the location of one of the trapdoors.

"Elphie, what are you doing?" Glinda asked.

"It's time, Glinda." I bit my lip, nervous. I sure hoped I could execute this plan before Boq murdered me.

"What do you mean, it's time?"

"Time to surrender. I can't go on like this, Glinda! I can't! Just promise me…promise me you won't try to clear my name!" I couldn't let something bad happen to Glinda. I couldn't stand the mere thought of it. Knowing her, she would try to do something to help me. While I was grateful that she cared, I kept imagining horrendible things happening if she tried to fix things.

"Elphie!"

"You have to promise!"

"I promise. But I don't understand!" Tears were trickling down Glinda's pale cheeks.

"I'm limited," I told her, heavy with burden. "Just look at me. I'm limited." I put Glinda's hand in mine. "And just look at you, you can do all I couldn't do, Glinda."

I pulled the Grimmerie out of the hidden pocket in my dress. "Here. Go on. Take this."

Glinda gasped. "Elphie, you know I can't read this!"

"Well," I said, "then you'll have to learn." I handed my best friend the book I had used for many things over the past four years, things that had changed all of our lives forever, for better and worse.

Glinda stared at me, dumbfounded.

"Because now it's up to _you. _For both of us! Now it's up to you."

I stared into Glinda's blue eyes, the eyes that reminded me of everything that had happened over the past five years. "You're the only friend I've ever had," I whispered to her. Boq had been a friend as well, a long time ago, but never a true friend; he had never stuck by my side, as Glinda had since we first danced together that night at the Ozdust. My life had only truly begun after Glinda and Fiyero stepped in.

"And I've had so many friends," said Glinda, tears in her eyes. "But only _one _that mattered." We hugged each other, the unbreakable bond of friendship strengthened with each breath.

"I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason," Glinda told me. "Bringing something we must learn, and we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them, and we help them in return. Well, I don't know if I believe that's true, but I knowI'm who I am today because I knew _you_."

I remembered the first day I saw Glinda, back when she was snobby Galinda Upland of the Upper Uplands. We had loathed each other more than anything in the world. Now, because of her, I found out what hate _really _was, and in the process, how friendship and love could change your life forever.

"Like a comet pulled from orbit," she sang softly, "as it passes a sun. Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood. Who can say if I've been changed for the better?" She laid her hands on top of mine. "But because I knew you, I have been changed for good!"

I couldn't decide how I felt; I was wrapped in both happiness and sadness, safety and fear. Emotions swirled around in my head, and I couldn't believe I wasn't going to see my best friend again.

"It may well be that we will never meet again in this lifetime," I whispered, struggling to hold back tears. "So let me say before we part, so much of me is made of what I learned from you!" I didn't know what to think. "You'll be with me like a handprint on my heart! And now, whatever way our stories end, I know you have re-written mine by being my friend!" If not for Glinda, I would be a different person. If not for Glinda, I could never saved all those Animals. "Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea. Like a seed dropped by a sky bird in a distant wood. Who can say that I've been changed for the better?"

"But because I knew you," we both sang.

"Because I knew you." Glinda gave me a tight hug, soothingly and carefully.

"I have been changed for good!" we both sang in unison.

I looked down at the bucket of suds on the floor. My last moments with Glinda were drifting away. Guilt took over; I needed to apologize for everything before I left. I couldn't leave her without telling her I was sorry for what I did to Oz.

I took a deep breath. "And just to clear the air, I ask forgiveness for the things I've done you blame me for!"

But Glinda wasn't angry. Instead, she smiled. "Well, then, I guess we know there's blame to share."

"And none of it seems to matter anymore!" After witnessing the Witch Hunt, I now understood that even if she had been a part it, Glinda had nothing to do with Nessa's death. I knew she had never intended for anyone to be hurt, so I accepted her apology.

"Who can say if I've been changed for the better?" we sang. "I do believe I have been changed for the better, but because I knew you…"

"Because I knew you."

"Because I knew you," we swore to each other, "I have been changed for good!"

I told Glinda goodbye for the last time. "You have to hide!" I added. "No one can know you're here!" This finally coaxed her out of the room before I executed Fiyero's plan. Heart pounding in my chest, I walked back into the room where I had locked Dorothy.

I dragged the girl out of the room, and the small dog followed, a string of high-pitched barks echoing across the room.

To my absolute horror, I saw Boq, the Lion, and the Scarecrow round the corner. As Boq swung his axe, I ducked out of the way, chanting a spell until balls of fire appeared in my hands. I pretended to aim the fire at the Scarecrow, although the spell was really heading for Boq.

The flames landed at the Tin Man's feet, erupting into a shower of sparks. He had been standing directly over the trapdoor, and suddenly jumped back.

Dorothy's eyes fell to the bucket on the floor behind me. She reached for the handle, using all of her strength to lift it up. She squeezed her eyes shut and poured the water on the fire, just as I stepped on top of the trapdoor.

"See what you've done?!" I yelled in mock fear as the freezing liquid drenched me. "I'm melting, I'm melting!"

Slowly but surely, I lowered myself down, kicking the latch with a subtle movement of my foot. The trapdoor opened, and I fell into a small room in which I could just barely fit.

I had done it! I tricked Dorothy into believing she had killed me. Everyone in Oz believed I was dead. _Everyone in Oz believed they had killed the Wicked Witch of the West._

I realized with disappointment that I had left my green vial in my cloak's pocket, and my cloak had caught on the latch of the trapdoor. Now I had lost both Nessa's shoes and my mother's vial. But I didn't need those things anymore: Fiyero was coming for me. _It's going to be alright_, I told myself, though I wasn't sure if I believed it.

There was a creak of floorboards above me, and I heard Glinda's sweet voice, though it was muffled by the position I was in. I could hear her pick up the hat she had given me long ago, and pull my cloak out of what she probably thought was a splinter in the wood. "Elphie?" she cried, "Elphie!"

By the sound of her footsteps, she ran off in the other direction.  
I stayed in the cramped room for a while, my wet dress clinging to my skin and causing my teeth to chatter uncontrollably, which I feared would give away my position.

There was another creak of boards, and this time a low voice, as sweet as honey, began to speak, quietly and gently. It was a voice I recognized, one that I knew like the back of my hand. _Fiyero._

"Elphaba," the voice whispered. "You never deserved this…"

I carefully lifted the trapdoor and climbed out. Kneeling before me was a man made entirely of cloth, stuffed with straw. A scarecrow. The very same Scarecrow that was assisting Boq in the Witch Hunt, who had been following them here to murder me.

But he had Fiyero's eyes, and I knew it had to be him. The words in his letter echoed through my mind. _I assure you, you have seen my face for the last time._ That was what he had meant…he was no longer human.

"It worked!" he gasped, amazed.

"Fiyero, I thought you'd _never_ get here!" I shouted, throwing my wet arms around him.

"You did the best you could," he said, sadly but calmly. I was thrilled that my spell had even worked. I had saved Fiyero. And I had saved Oz from going mad over the Wicked Witch, but doing so, I had saved myself.

"You saved my life." Fiyero smiled.

"You're still beautiful," I told him, running my hand down his face.

He grasped my hand in his. "You don't have to _lie_ to me!"

I smiled, remembering what he had told me the night of the twister. "It's not lying," I told him. Recognizing the words, his straw face lit up. "It's thinking of things the other way."

"It's time to go," he said with haste.

"We can never come back to Oz," I realized, "can we?"

Fiyero shook his head sadly.

"I only wish…Glinda could know we were alive," I said, looking out the window, off toward the Time Dragon Clock, where Glinda floated in her bubble.

"She can't know. Not if we want to be safe." Fiyero sighed, looking down at the floor. "No one can ever know."

We kissed, his pale, cloth lips against my pale red ones.

Together, we snuck out through the gates of Oz and into a place unfamiliar to either of us. We were starting over

And I could have sworn I heard Glinda the Good's voice carrying with the wind, talking to me. "Because I knew you…"

"I have been changed for good!" I sang back, knowing Glinda would never get the message, but magical things really were possible. _All I could do for you was never enough, but saved myself for you._

* * *

**THE END**

**I would like to thank everyone who read, reviewed, followed, or favorited this story. I really appreciate your support.**

**~ EmeraldElphaba**


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